BioHiTech has partnered with Natural Systems Utilities to test a process that will allow BioHiTech’s food waste disposal system, the Eco-Safe Digester, to digest, tank, and deliver the effluent from its Eco-Safe Digesters to anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities anywhere in the world.
Other project partners include the village of Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Ridgewood Green RME, which owns a 20,000-gallon-per-day liquid waste receiving facility and a 240 kW digester biogas power plant that is co-located at the anaerobic digestion facility.
BioHiTech’s Eco-Safe Digester utilizes an aerobic digestion process to convert food waste to grey water, or effluent. Typically the effluent is discharged safely into the sewage system and individual wastewater treatment facilities to treat it with other sanitary waste. This new process will tank the unit’s effluent allowing for transportation to an anaerobic digestion plant where biogas can be captured and used to create renewable energy.
The Eco-Safe Digester performs the hydrolysis stage of anaerobic digestion at the point of origin. Because the aerobic digestion process begins with the breakdown of solid organics to a liquid slurry, the effluent is able to be easily pumped and transported, arriving at the AD facility in a “predigested” condition allowing for efficient feedstock transfer and eliminating the need for costly processing at the AD facility, the company says.
This new process is currently being tested at a high-volume supermarket in New Jersey and transported to an anaerobic digestion facility operated by the village of Ridgewood at its water pollution control facility. Natural Systems Utilities operates those components of the project owned by Ridgewood Green RME.
Last month, BioHiTech installed its commercial food waste disposal system at a second Dunkin’ Donuts location in New Jersey, helping the restaurant divert food waste from landfills and save money on waste management.
