Oct. 9--STAMFORD -- The big metal contraption, rigged on a flat trailer bed behind the wastewater treatment plant, blasted heat inside a furnace-like core, shot gas through a series of filters, and, like magic, an electrical generator came to life.

It was a milestone for Jeanette Brown and her team of researchers. For the first time in a controlled setting, the group Tuesday converted solid waste from toilets and drains into electricity.

Brown, executive director of the Water Pollution Control Authority, has been working since last year to convert dried wastewater sludge into energy using gasification. Her goal is to build a 10-megawatt power plant on the site that would use gasified organic waste to help meet the city's electrical needs.

Within two months, the team should be ready to begin designing a full-scale power plant, Brown said. If the project secures funding, the plant could be built by 2010.

"I'm really excited," Brown said. "We've been able to verify our original premise, which is that you can take wastewater and convert it to energy without creating pollutants."

The waste could be converted into money, too. City officials plan to use about one megawatt from the plant to power the waste treatment facility. The city would sell the other nine megawatts to the power grid.

That is a fraction of Stamford's energy needs. Stamford's biggest energy user, UBS, consumes about 10 megawatts per hour, Mayor Dannel Malloy said. According to a 2007 report, one megawatt is the amount of power consumed by 700 homes.

Jeff Fournier, a research contractor working on the project, said the technology, only pursued in Stamford, could change how cities look at wastewater disposal. Traditionally, cities pay to have wastewater organics hauled away and burned. Stamford has turned away from the conventional method, instead drying waste sludge and selling it as fertilizer.

"We've been able to move sludge from the cost side to the income side," Fournier said. "The question I ask people is, 'If you had a room full of dollar bills, would you burn them?' "

Malloy said it is not yet known how much revenue the plant would raise. The answer partly depends on how much the city invests in building the plant, which is expected to cost millions, Brown said.

Now Brown's team is using a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and matched by the city.

Malloy said there may be several ways to pay for the plant, including bonding, federal grants or a private investment that could be paid with revenue from the power generated.