Campbell’s Recycles Soup Waste, Creates Electricity

Campbell’s Soup Company is partnering with CH4 Biogas to create Ohio’s first commercial biogas power plant to generate renewable electricity. Campbell’s will direct waste generated from its soup, sauce and beverage production in Napoleon, Ohio, diverting 35 to 50 percent of its current waste away from Henry County landfills.

The anaerobic digester will process material from area food processors, waste recyclers and local dairy farms, generating methane gas, which will be used to fuel turbines that will produce energy for Campbell’s existing beverage production and offsetting fossil fuel use. The power generated for the beverage facility will replace about 25 percent of Campbell’s Napoleon facility’s annual electricity use.

A 15-year power purchase and services agreement will allow Campbell’s to use 100 percent of the electricity generated at a flat cost.

The biogas power plant, Napoleon Biogas, will be located on more than seven acres of land directly across the street from the Campbell’s site in Harrison Township. CH4 designed, owns and operates the site. Other area industry and farming operations will also be able to leverage the facility, as the digester is designed to handle approximately 450 tons of mixed waste organic material a day, leaving 60 percent available capacity.

Construction is underway and slated for completion in mid-2013. The project is financed by Eksport Kredit Fonden, the Danish state export credit agency, which will provide a debt guaranty on the financing and with investments from CH4 Biogas and BNB Napoleon Biogas.

The site is adjacent to a 60-acre, 9.8 MW solar system constructed by BNB Renewable Energy Holdings for Campbell’s in 2011 that currently provides 15 percent of power for Campbell’s Napoleon facility.