Roth: Old jack-o’-lanterns can provide power

By Jim Roth | November 7, 2011

One of my favorite parts about the tradition of Halloween, besides eating too much candy, is carving pumpkins. My jack-o’-lantern this year was top-notch, I must confess. But once the day passes – after eating all of the pumpkin seeds – most of us just throw our pumpkins in the garbage or compost. But what if instead of just a candlelight, our pumpkin scraps could help turn on the lights in your home?

One utility company in California has come up with an incredible idea. The East Bay Municipal Utility District, or EBMUD, has been able to use discarded spooky pumpkins into a renewable power helping provide electricity to its customers. The EBMUD has been turning discarded food into energy.

Here’s how it works: After food is discarded, it is delivered to EBMUD anaerobic digesters. The EBMUD was one of the first utility companies to convert its sewage water plant into a unit that could convert food into energy. Once inside the EBMUD plant, bacteria break down the pumpkins and release methane gas that is used to generate electricity.

The EBMUD studied this process and determined that converting its wastewater plant into a food waste facility made sense. The study demonstrated that methane production from wasted food was three times that of what is generated from sewage water. Plus, sewage water has to be stored longer so that it can reach a point where bacteria can break it down to produce methane. So, it is a shorter period of time and a higher yield of methane from food waste, ultimately producing electricity.

Consider this, the Department of Energy reports that if 50 percent of the food waste in the United States was placed through a similar anaerobic process, it would provide enough electricity to power 2.5 million homes for a year. Both the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are working closely with industry and companies to help invest in the development of these types of facilities for utility companies, and at large regional landfills. Solid waste can also be used to help produce biofuels and other forms of bio-power.

The Department of Agriculture reports that we discard 1.4 billion pounds of pumpkins following Halloween. Just think, with these investments and improvements in technology, we could not only be buying pumpkins next year, but also helping our environment and lowering our utility bills.

Now, that’s a thought that shouldn’t scare anybody.

Jim Roth, a former Oklahoma corporation commissioner, is an attorney with Phillips Murrah P.C. in Oklahoma City, where his practice focuses on clean, green energy for Oklahoma.