Canada-headed biogas technology provider Anaergia Inc. has announced that it has signed a contract to build a state-of-the-art food waste and wastewater sludge co-digestion facility at Monterey One Water in California, United States.
An error occurred
On your profile you can see what subscriptions you have access to and more information.
Is some of the information wrong – please contact our customer service.
Please reload the page
Do you want to read the whole article?
- Six editions per year
- Full access to all digital content
- The E-magazine Bioenergy international
- And more ...
According to a statement, Anaergia will provide technologies that will enable Monterey One Water, the wastewater utility of northern Monterey County, California (CA), to make renewable energy from food waste as well as wastewater.
The project will significantly expand the anaerobic digestion (AD) capacity at Monterey One Water’s Regional Treatment Plant (RTP) in Marina, CA, and provide organic waste receiving and pre-processing equipment.
This will allow the utility to receive and co-digest food waste in existing digesters currently used to process wastewater biosolids.
When anaerobically digested, the waste produces renewable biogas, which is then used to generate electricity and heat at the Monterey One plant.
Improve performance and save energy
The project will return a mothballed AD unit to service and provide state-of-the-art Anaergia digestion tank mixing technology to process food waste with biosolids without impacting critical wastewater operations.
The new technology will simultaneously improve performance and save energy. Along with the ability to co-digest food waste with biosolids, Monterey One will benefit from a significant expansion of digester capacity to provide operational flexibility.
The project will increase biogas production from the plant’s four digesters by more than 150 percent, which will be used to make up to 1.6 MW of renewable electricity via on-site combined heat and power (CHP) engines.
The increased energy production will provide more than 100 percent of the plant’s power needs, significantly reducing operating costs, supporting revenue generation, and increasing resiliency and reliability.
This significant expansion in onsite energy generation is a major asset to the development of a joint microgrid that will be shared by Monterey One neighbor and regional solid waste agency, ReGen.
By upgrading its infrastructure to enable co-digestion of food waste along with its wastewater, Monterey One Water will now not only recycle water, but it will also recycle organic waste that would have otherwise created methane emissions in landfills. This turns a big problem into a huge benefit and ultimately is what will make a net-zero future possible for planet Earth. These proven technologies will eventually be implemented at hundreds of other wastewater treatment plants around the world, and Monterey One Water is leading the way, said Dr Andrew Benedek, Chairman and CEO of Anaergia.
Reduce methane emissions
The upgraded AD technologies and new waste-receiving equipment will assist the region’s solid waste industry, by enabling diversion of food waste from regional landfills to advance compliance with California’s SB1383 legislation.
The new law is designed to reduce planet-warming methane emissions, which are created when food and other organic wastes are landfilled.
CalRecycle, California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, will provide US $4 218 900 in grant funds, minimizing the impact on the utility’s ratepayers by offsetting most of the project’s cost.
Work on the project is expected to begin in Q2 2023 and be completed by Q3 2024.
With support from CalRecycle, we have a unique opportunity to co-digest wastewater solids with food waste to produce more green energy, which will both reduce our operating costs and cut our carbon emissions. This is a model solution for other wastewater utilities, ended Paul Sciuto, General Manager of Monterey One Water.
