The Blue River Biosolids Facility is transforming what happens after residents flush by turning wastewater into energy and fertilizer through a process used at only nine other facilities nationwide.
The facility, located near Interstate 435 and Front Street, officially opened May 6 and now processes about 50 million gallons of Kansas City’s wastewater daily. According to Shawn Cross, senior project manager for the Blue River Biosolids Facility, the project replaces aging incinerators that dated back to the 1960s.
“We had originally three multi-hearth incinerators turning sludge into ash. The environment was amazingly corrosive, and it's very hard on equipment," Cross told KCUR's Up to Date. "Toward the end of their life we had gone down to one [incinerator], and the air emissions were becoming an issue, which was driving the need for trying to get away from that technology and explore something else.”
The $127 million upgrade uses a thermal hydrolysis process, which pressure-cooks sewage sludge before it undergoes anaerobic digestion. The treatment kills pathogens and allows bacteria to break down waste more efficiently.
The new system reduces the facility’s natural gas usage by about 40% while creating biogases and class A biosolids. The city may consider marketing the biosolid commercially in the future, similar to a facility in Washington D.C.
- Shawn Cross, senior project manager for the wastewater treatment division at KC Water
