Energy Production and Organic Resource Recovery: Transforming Agricultural (Food Growing) and Food Processing Waste
Innovative yet proven, commercially viable technologies are now available that can provide economically and environmentally sound solutions for energy production and resource recovery from organic materials - while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating renewable fuels and producing value-added co-products.
In Europe, methods are being deployed to enable transformation of food-processing-derived, plant-based organic waste co-products like vegetable trimmings and brewers’ spent grain into high and medium added value food, feed and pharmaceutical products such as biopolymers, phyto-chemicals, nutrients and micronutrients. Newer enzyme-based bioprocesses can deconstruct and tailor co-products components with integrated procedures for ensuring microbiological safety, stability and traceability of co-products.
Farm and Food Processing Waste Production
Farms and food processing companies generate significant amounts of spoilage and waste as part of the process of growing food, transporting food to processing facilities and converting raw food into packaged, market-ready food products for distribution.
Farms may experience up to 25% of spoilage as crops are harvested and transported from field to factory. A typical food processing plant – depending on the foodstuff - generates 10% to 40% of the incoming field tonnage as waste. This often amounts to hundreds of tons per day of waste material that must be trucked either to landfills, farmers, or to receive further additional costly processing before it can be disposed. All of these traditional methods of waste disposal cost money, energy and come with an ecological price.
The California League of Food Processors reports there are approximately 6,000 licensed food-processing facilities in that state alone. All of these 6,000 facilities are potential candidate sites for some form of on-site waste recycling/conversion processing technology (everything from digesters to some form of combined heat/power plant) that can produce energy, bio-fuels and/or bio-products. In addition, most farms are also candidates for on-site, scalable waste/residue management facilities – or as recipients of useful by-products returned to them from food processors as part of a “virtuous cycle of continuous recycling” of agricultural production.
Energy costs, local, state and federal waste disposal regulations, increasing environmental awareness/regulation (such as Kyoto Protocols) and new technologies to turn waste into value end-products together create powerful incentives for food processors to adopt innovative – yet proven – technologies.
Municipal Green Waste
Some states, including California, require the diversion of up to 50% of food and green wastes from landfills, and offer additional incentives for biomass waste utilization as a feedstock. Cost-effective, green technologies can transform waste-to-energy (electricity, heat and chilling), biofuels/biogasses and other bioproducts with significant environmental benefits and economic value. Capital investment for such projects can be derived from recovery/reinvestment of waste transportation and landfill tipping fees (currently $25-70 per wet ton) associated with disposing of most food and green wastes.
Commercially viable technologies for bioproduct production also include new kinds of microbial conversion/digesters/ enzymatic processes that convert food processing solid and liquid residues into organic acids, other food ingredients and co-products (such as natural flavors, pigments, nutraceuticals, dietary fibers and human-grade food proteins). The pan-European REPRO research network has made some very promising discoveries (www.repro-net.net).
BioSynEnergy: Distributed Waste-to-Energy Facilities Using Affordable, Super-Clean, Proprietary Vacuum Pyrolysis Technology
BioSynEnergy is promoting a break-through innovation in vacuum pyrolysis uses the waste streams of individual industries and businesses to provide on-site electrical, heat and chilling energy at affordable prices. Already permitted by the EPA and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, this vacuum pyrolysis can provide a wide range of industrial users with a clean technology solution to two major problems: the high costs of energy and waste handling (usually removal).
Pyrolytic waste-to-energy/cogeneration facilities can be located on-site at the point of waste production and sized to handle from 5 to 120 tons daily. Our installations can process virtually any waste stream into energy and/or marketable products (e.g. plastics, organic matter, used tires, municipal waste, municipal sludge/biosolids, cardboard/ newspaper, and chemicals – even contaminated soil). The food processing industry in particular could enjoy huge energy savings because of its continuous demand for electricity, heating and cooling.
The vacuum pyrolytic co-generation/CHP plant is ideally suited to fill the demand for combined heat and power from small, medium and large sized food processing companies– and is the only commercially proven technology that can use virtually any waste stream. Producing electricity from waste processing with vacuum pyrolysis can reduce the cost of electricity and thermal energy 40% below the cost of combustion-based CHPs and up to 150% below the cost of commercial electricity - lower capital costs, lower operating/maintenance costs, and lower fuel costs (e.g. using waste streams as fuel).
In addition to generating electricity, heating and cooling energy, the vacuum pyrolytic process can produce intermediate, high value, co-products that can be used for on-site energy generation or stored/sold to other customers to produce green energy and other applications. For instance, the carbon material produced is of such purity that it can be processed as high-grade/high value activated carbon for cleaning flue gases in industrial smokestacks.
Examples of High Value, Vaccum Pyrolytic End-Products
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Densified Carbon Fuel Pellets |
Fuel Oils/
Solvents |
Carbon Briquettes for Coal Co-firing |
Fine Activated
Carbon/Carbon
Black |
Clean Burning Gas (For Co-Generating Electricity) |
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