STEP A – Digesters

Bacteria from Your Guts “Digests” the Sludge

About 3/5 of the sludge (food and “used to be food”) settles out in the big tanks we call clarifiers. That sludge moves through pipes to our digesters. The round grey buildings with white rails are digesters. You can think of them as giant man-made guts. We keep the sludge at body temperature. That way the bacteria from your guts will eat the food and poop.

As the bacteria eat, they make methane gas. Methane gas has no smell. It is a good fuel because it burns easily. Methane gas is the kind of gas your guts produce. We store the methane gas in the white and orange building (see bottom photo). The gas is pumped to engines that make electricity for the wastewater plant.