At the August 24 work session, Quakertown Borough Council discussed two details of the upcoming biogas electricity generation that will use Quakertown's wastewater: a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) air quality permit and a maintenance contract to protect the integrity of the generators.

            Quakertown's wastewater treatment plant is undergoing a major upgrade to generate electricity from biogas produced by waste. This process requires actual motors to create the electricity, and since these are large machines, borough council discussed a measure to protect them in the form of a maintenance contract with the manufacturer.

            The contract discussed would cover eight years and include regular maintenance items, oil changes, spare parts, and a dedicated engineer available for repairs.

            In addition, the agreement guarantees 8,000 hours of generator runtime per year, with an estimated 700 hours of downtime for maintenance. That's about two hours of downtime every day.

            The generators at the plant are 20-cylinder motors that are designed specifically for biogas. As such, they are specialized, and the borough's staff is not equipped to maintain them in-house, necessitating some sort of agreement with a knowledgeable engineer in order to protect the efficiency of the machine.

            As this plant will be Quakertown's largest machine investment, and will generate large amounts of electricity for the borough, Quakertown's council has a strong interest in keeping the plant and generators in excellent condition.

            All these maintenance benefits come at a cost, of course, so the council is reviewing the details carefully to ensure that the agreement will have everything needed to keep this huge investment safe while not coming at a cost too great as to negate the positive impact of the plant as a whole.

            In addition, the plant will be required to have an air quality permit from DEP. Since the borough has no experience obtaining an air quality permit of any kind, the borough is looking to hire a consultant to make sure this work is done correctly.

            Initially, Quakertown will have a one-year temporary permit from DEP, which they will need outside help to obtain. After a year of operation, a permanent permit can be issued. During this timeframe, the plant staff will learn how to maintain the permit in-house, so Quakertown expects any agreement with a consultant to last only two years.

            The plant uses an enclosed flare design, which is cleaner than the alternative. This design contributes to the plant's overall projected emissions, which are so low that it meets California's emissions testing standards, which are the toughest in the United States. As such, there shouldn't be much difficulty in obtaining the needed air quality permit.

            Quakertown expects the generators at the plant to be running by the end of this year, and starting in 2027, the generators can run 24/7 with short intermittent downtimes for maintenance.

            Other municipalities, including the borough of Lansdale, have already lined up to haul their waste material to Quakertown's forthcoming plant, and in doing so will generate more revenue for Quakertown.