When you flush the toilet do you ever think, “Man, all this good stuff is just going to waste?” Ok, probably not. But in the future your home or office may be partially heated by that human waste, thanks to geothermal sewage. What exactly is geothermal sewage, you cringe? It’s the process by which the heat from a wastewater line is repurposed to heat a nearby facility such as a hotel or apartment building. The heat transfer is accomplished by filtering solids from the wastewater and passes through a heat pump before reaching the building. In China geothermal sewage has already been installed in a few buildings, including the Beijing Train Station. Now a wastewater treatment facility in Philadelphia is beginning the first US trial with this technology. It is a company in Philadelphia, NovaThermal Energy, that is making geothermal sewage possible by developing a proprietary filter material that can efficiently remove waste without requiring pretreatment. Currently the technology requires that a target building be adjacent to large sewer mains, but if this pilot project is successful it could change our attitudes about sewage (and poop). David Henderson of XPV Capital in Toronto may have said it best: “Wastewater is a terrible name for wastewater. There are incredibly valuable resources in a wastewater flow: energy, nutrients, other materials, water itself.” It’s just a matter of separating the good from the bad. Read this Forbes piece for more information