Chi Sage Systems

Sewage treatment plants are of two types: aerobic and unaerobic. The diagram below shows a solution for an unaerobic process treatment plant but the heating/cooling elements apply to an aerobic one as well. An aerobic plant would not have the methane gas creation.

The diagram shows how a heating & cooling plant takes the influent and utilizes it to create chilled water (used for cooling or refrigeration). The result is that the influent gets heated as is needed for the unaerobic process to work optimally, eliminating the need for burning gas to heat the inflow.

The effluent that comes out of the process, while cleaned, has to be cooled before it can be returned to the environment (river, irrigation). The plant creates hot water by taking the heat from the effluent, thereby cooling the effluent. The hot water can be used for heating or directly as hot water.

The sludge is processed in a special gasification process that creates a high temperature (1600F) dense synthetic gas that can be used for power generation and heating. It is ideal for a co-generation plant. All that is left is fine ash. No smoke or other fumes are created during the process, which even eliminates bad smells.

The Methane is used for co-generation (gas and steam turbine), together with the synthetic gas from the sludge. The system is a closed cycle system, thereby utilizing the energy most efficiently.

Further more, unlike standard co-generation (Combined Heat Power or CHP) plants, our design is more efficient as we utilize our heat-pumps to pre-heat the water before the boiler takes them to the steam stage.

The result is a sewage treatment plant that not only doesn't require external energy, but rather provides energy to its environment, in the form of electricity and heating and cooling (hot and chilled water). It even, practically, eliminates waste (sludge), which is a big problem for waste-water treatment plants.