Weekly News Briefs: Researcher Harvests Energy from Ammonia

Stanford University researcher Yaniv Scherson has developed a process that captures ammonia from wastewater, converts it to nitrous oxide, and then burns it to generate electricity.“That is not done anywhere else in the world, so this is a game-changer in our industry,” says Gary Darling, general manager of the Delta Diablo Sanitation District, which is where Scherson is completing a pilot project.At the plant, nitrous oxide will be introduced to the methane-burning cogeneration engines with the goal of helping the plant consume less power from the grid. The process could eventually power 5 to 10 percent of the 16.5 mgd