Recover and Generate EnergyDiversion of organic waste from landfill resulting in:
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
- Reduced leachate
- Reduced need for land for landfill expansion
Production of compost for application to landscaping and in some cases food production.
Production of greenhouse gas neutral energy.
- Offset costs of curbside waste collection for lower overall system cost
- In many cases, curbside collection of organic waste is cheaper than garbage collection
- New revenue source from sale of biofuel, tipping fees, and greenhouse gas credits
Get started by:
Completing an inventory of waste streams, such as all organic solid waste from homes, food factories, and agriculture.
An analysis of resource needs could then be undertaken, such as a need for greenhouse gas-neutral transit fuel. This information could then be used to develop business cases for the infrastructure required to recover waste from resources.
A local government could increase the productivity or capacity of its wastewater treatment plant digestion process, and could also divert organic solid waste from landfills by undertaking anaerobic digestion in separate vessels at the wastewater treatment plant.
If the community does not have a biogas digester, it could study the costs and benefits of building one. Existing municipal land and assets, as well as industrial sites, could be considered as locations for a new biogas digester.
Resource
Wet Organic Waste:
- Residential and Commercial Food Waste
- Agricultural Waste
- Sewage Biosolids
- Manure
When is it Waste?
When produced by farming and food production, retail, preparation and consumption.
Conventional Approach
Collect and landfill.
Regenerative Approach
Collect and divert to anaerobic digestion to produce biomethane and nutrients.
How It Works
In anaerobic composting, waste decomposes without oxygen in an anaerobic digester, resulting in bacteria converting the waste into "biogas", which is rich in methane. Similar to landfill gas, biogas can undergo a variety of treatments to produce fuel for vehicles or to generate heat and electricity.
There are different types of anaerobic digesters based on the types of materials they process (food and agricultural waste, sewage biosolids, manure) and are categorized depending on operational temperature.
Yields of biogas from organic waste depend on a large number of factors including moisture content, composition of the waste, the method used to prepare the waste for digestion, and the type of digestion process used. Fortunately, biogas digesters operate more efficiently on a "mixed diet", in which the ratio of carbon to nitrogen is balanced.
Where is it Happening?
Surrey Biofuel Facility
