Turning 'Poop into Power' as WSSC Water Unveils Facility to Produce Natural Gas from Waste

PISCATAWAY, Md. — WSSC Water unveiled a $271 million biosolids-to-energy facility Wednesday that promises to produce enough natural gas from digested sewage sludge to power a fleet of RideOn buses in Montgomery County, authorities said as they showed off the new plant.

Informally, WSSC Water refers to the process as "poop to power."

The facility at the utility's Piscataway Wastewater Treatment Plant was built with the help of federal environmental funding from the 2023 Inflation Reduction Act, according to Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Maryland).

Sludge recovered from six WSSC Water treatment facilities serving 1.9 million people will be transported to the Piscataway plant for processing using heat and bacteria into natural gas and residual bio-solids that can be used to fertilize farm fields, according Maryland's largest water/wastewater utility.

The biosolids left over from the new treatment process will be significantly cleaner than the current product produced by the system. The cleaned biosolids can be sold and distributed as a soil amendment. 

The natural gas and biosolids produced are expected to earn the plant about $4 million per year, according to WSSC Water.

"The Piscataway Bioenergy Project is the type of cutting-edge innovation that will help us tackle the climate crisis," Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said.

Rep. Ivey said, “Bioenergy production is one of the vital ways we can turn waste into useable fuel. WSSC Water is taking a cutting-edge approach to making the most of our area’s human waste into clean natural gas for buses among other uses."

On May 16, 2023, WSSC Water signed a five-year contract with Montgomery County, with the option to renew for five additional one-year terms, to sell the gas from its facility to power their Ride On buses. The agreement is anticipated to generate $700,000/year from the sale of gas and approximately $3.2 million annually from the sale of renewable fuel credits. 

“Turning waste into fuel is the kind of forward-thinking solution we need to tackle both environmental and transportation challenges,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, who said the deal will help achieve the county's goal of zero carbon emissions by 2035.