Bio-energy Recovery Project

Working to Meet the City's Sustainability Goals.

This new system produces green energy through the production of biogas and will use an advanced anaerobic digestion process to treat the biosolids, wastewater byproducts, which will reduce the overall biosolids amount by around 50 percent when compared to the current system. The new system will feature a process called a “thermal hydrolysis process," which acts as a pressure cooker to help reduce the amount of biosolids produced.

Additional Benefits: Fuel for up to 70 Buses a Year

Besides the decreased biosolids amount, the project will also create biogas which will be captured and converted to a renewable natural gas and delivered to a nearby natural gas pipeline. This renewable natural gas can be used as fuel for the City’s Go Raleigh bus fleet or it can be sold to a third party as revenue. The biogas is projected to produce enough fuel to run as many as 70 City buses per day. Ultimately, the new project will produce green energy, allowing the City to make great strides in moving towards reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and meeting its sustainability goals.  

 

Bio-Energy Recovery Project

The Bio-Energy Recovery Project is a new way to manage wastewater byproducts at the Neuse River Resource Recovery Facility, which is the City of Raleigh's main wastewater treatment plant. At this time the wastewater byproducts, called biosolids, are highly treated at the Neuse River Resource Recovery Facility and applied to surrounding agriculture fields or taken offsite by a contractor. However, because the existing biosolids handling equipment is in need of replacement and the overall biosolids amount will increase with future growth, a new treatment system is needed.

The project began in the spring of 2019, and it is scheduled to be completed in mid 2024.