Abstract
Wastewater from human activity could fill more than 100 million Olympic-size swimming pools in a single year, according to researchers from Canada and the Netherlands ( Earth Syst. Sci. Data 2021, DOI: 10.5194/essd-13-237-2021 ). The waste people send down the drain is rich in energy, but turning that waste into renewable fuels in the most efficient way is critical to making the endeavor economically viable. Scientists have now shown that they can boost both hydrogen and biodiesel production from waste by adding a biodegradable surfactant ( ACS ES&T Engg. 2023, DOI: 10.1021/acsestengg.2c00372 ). Researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology and Northeast Agricultural University took waste activated sludge—made from raw sewage that had been treated with oxygen to stabilize its microbe populations—from a treatment plant in Harbin, China. They sieved the mixture to remove large particles, heated the sludge, and allowed bacteria to produce hydrogen through fermentation. After that, the
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