ermont Technical College held a groundbreaking ceremony on April 30 for its Central Vermont Recovered Biomass Facility Anaerobic Digester (CVRBFAD).

Randolph, Vermont: Groundbreaking For Food & Farm Waste Biogas Plant

Vermont Technical College held a groundbreaking ceremony on April 30 for its Central Vermont Recovered Biomass Facility Anaerobic Digester (CVRBFAD). The facility, colocated with the farm fields on the college’s Randolph Campus, will produce electricity plus heat from food waste and manure. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross, Public Service Department Commissioner Chris Recchia, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund Executive Director Ellen Kahler and Vermont State Colleges Chancellor Timothy Donovan. The CVRBFAD will serve as an educational facility and model for other facilities as the reduced dependence on non-renewable energy sources is a benefit consistent with the state’s energy plan. “This is where we connect the dots to grow jobs and economic prosperity for Vermont… actually helping this country chart a course for a green power future with projects like this,” remarked Gov. Shumlin. “That’s going to ensure that Vermont does its part to have a stronger and healthier planet in the future.”

The digester — using Lipp technology supplied by Bio-Methatech — will be constructed near the campus central heating plant, which will ease transferring power to Vermont’s electric grid as well as heat to the campus. “This facility will become a focus for education in renewable energy, waste management, sustainable agriculture, and contribute to the health of our soils here in Vermont and the region,” said President of Vermont Tech, Dr. Philip Conroy. “It will be a source of knowledge for researchers, lawmakers, policymakers, the resource management industry, and so many more here in Vermont and throughout New England.”

Dane County, Wisconsin: Construction Set To Begin On Second Dairy Digester

Construction of Dane County’s second “Cow Power” facility is set to begin after receiving approval of the final agreements by the Dane County Board at a meeting in early May. The agreements will secure $3.3 million in previously-awarded grant funding from the state to help finance construction of the digester in the town of Springfield. The agreements also formalize private ownership and operations of the facility with Gundersen Health System, which set a corporate sustainability goal of being 100 percent energy independent by 2014, which includes renewable energy from biogas. The digester will take manure from three farms — a total of about 2,400 to 2,500 cows — and convert it into a 2 MW project with the electricity sold to Madison Gas and Electric. According to a press release from Dane County, the new facility has the ability to safely store millions of gallons of manure to help these farmers keep it off the land during periods of high run-off. The digester also has emergency manure storage capabilities for neighboring farms that may have difficulties storing it during excessively long, wet winter and spring seasons. “By working together — the public sector, private sector, business and agriculture — we are helping clean up our lakes, create homegrown ‘green’ energy, and make it easier for our multigeneration family farms to keeping growing their herds, crops and our local economy,” says Joe Parisi, Dane County Executive. Parisi included $300,000 in this year’s county budget to fund a new water treatment system for this digester that is designed to remove 100 percent of the phosphorus in the digested manure. Phosphorus is the leading cause of green algae and other weed growth in Dane County’s lakes.

The developer of this second digester, US Biogas, designed the 3 million gallon complete mix digester, and will oversee construction that is scheduled to begin in June after the project receives its permit from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The digester is expected to come on line before the end of 2013. Through a similar public/private partnership, Dane County helped develop the first “Cow Power” digester shared by neighboring farms just north of Waunakee. That facility has been operational since 2011 (see “County Clusters Farms For Renewable Power Project,” February 2012).

Dane County has 400 dairy farms, which equates to approximately 50,000 dairy cows. Dairy farming is a $700-million a year industry in the county that supports 4,000 jobs. That is why addressing environmental impacts from the dairy industry in Dane County is so critical. “Nutrient removal is what makes these community digester projects tick in our county,” says Dave Merritt, Dane County’s Director of Policy and Program Development, adding that additional ones are already in the planning stages.

Washington, DC: Public Comments Sought On Reap Application Changes

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed a series of changes to make it easier for agricultural producers and rural small businesses to apply for renewable energy and energy efficiency funding. The proposed changes would affect applications for loans and grants through USDA Rural Development’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

According to USDA, they would achieve the following: Reduce paperwork, especially for projects under $80,000; Implement a more objective and uniform system to score applications; Authorize funding for refurbished and retrofitted renewable energy systems; Reduce certain reporting requirements; and Establish a quarterly application period for applicants seeking only guaranteed loans. This last change is intended to make the program more appealing to lenders and to ensure that funds are available year-round.

REAP is one of USDA’s most popular renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. From the passage of the 2008 Farm Bill through the end of Fiscal Year 2012, REAP funded more than 6,800 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, feasibility studies, energy audits and renewable energy development assistance projects. The public comment period closes on June 11, 2013. To submit comments, or for additional information, see Page 22044 of the April 12 Federal Register, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-04-12/pdf/2013-07273.pdf.

Fresno, Ohio: Cheese Producer Reduces Power Costs With Microturbine

Pearl Valley Cheese in Fresno is using biogas produced from treating its cheese wastewater in an anaerobic digester to generate electricity, which will save about $60,000 in energy costs annually, according to Pearl Valley President Chuck Ellis. Pearl Valley Cheese (PVC) manufactures 25,000 pounds/day of natural cheeses that are distributed throughout the eastern United States. The company’s 40,000-square foot operation houses a retail store, administrative offices, cold storage warehousing and manufacturing facilities. In business since the 1920s, PVC had always disposed of its wastewater on the family’s farm. As cheese production increased, so did the volume of wastewater. In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency “insisted that we make considerations for a new disposal plan,” says Ellis.

Construction of the facility began in 2009 to handle the cheese-making operation discharge of about 40,000 gallons/day of wastewater. Siemens Water Technology designed and built the digester, which has 427,000 gallons of capacity. The system also includes two Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) units to remove solids, and a gas storage vessel that holds 24 standard cubic feet of gas. PVC’s original plan had been to use a digester to produce biogas to fuel the facility’s boilers. Then the price of natural gas dropped, along with the potential savings from using biogas, Ellis says. He learned about microturbine technology, which would reduce power costs, and last September, purchased a 65 kilowatt C65 Capstone Micro Turbine, custom-designed and installed by Walbridge, Ohio-based GEM Energy. GEM also installed a high-pressure system to remove moisture from the gas. The turbine began producing electricity in March 2013, and “has worked out very well,” Ellis says, adding that some issues had to be resolved relating to gas supply to the turbine. The company has a net-metering arrangement with its local utility, Frontier Power Co., to feed the power it doesn’t use on-site into the local electrical grid.

The solids, a by-product of cheese production, are collected in a sludge holding tank for land application. The solids are rich in phosphorous and nitrogen and have significant fertilizer value for the crops grown near the cheese plant and on the family farm, Ellis explains. The system generates about 1,500 gallons/day of sludge. Ellis is considering installing a dewatering system to facilitate land application.

Step 1: Divert One Million Tons Of Organics To Composting
Step 2: Create And Sustain 1,400 New Full-Time Jobs
Step 3: Use Compost In Community
Step 4: Reduce Watershed Contamination
(*calculated for State of Maryland)

A new report released on May 8 by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) — “Pay Dirt: Composting in Maryland to Reduce Waste, Create Jobs, & Protect the Bay” — found that 1,400 new full-time jobs could be supported in the state of Maryland for every million tons of yard trimmings and food scraps converted into compost that is used locally.  Collectively, these jobs could pay wages ranging from $23 million to $57 million. Based on a survey of Maryland composters, Pay Dirt calculated that, on a per-ton basis, composting sustains twice as many jobs as landfilling and four times the number of jobs as burning garbage.  On a dollar-per-capital-investment basis, the number of jobs supported by composting versus disposal options was even more striking — 3 times more than landfills, and 17 times more than incinerators, says Brenda Platt, lead author of Pay Dirt and director of ILSR’s Composting Makes $en$e project.  Many of these are skilled jobs such as equipment operators, with typical wages in the $16 to $20/hour range.

ILSR also released a companion paper, “Building Healthy Soils with Compost to Protect Watersheds,” which details how compost use can reduce watershed contamination from urban pollutants by an astounding 60 to 95 percent.  Because compost can hold 20 times its weight in water and acts like a filter and sponge, it can reduce soil erosion and prevent storm water run-off, huge issues impacting the Chesapeake Bay and other impaired watersheds in the United States.  Markets for compost are growing in part due to the expansion of sustainable practices associated with green infrastructure such as green roofs, rain gardens and low impact development. “For every 10,000 tons per year of compost used for green infrastructure, we found that another 18 jobs could be supported,” says Platt, adding that “support for composting equals support for a made-in-America industrial sector.” The Institute for Local Self-Reliance is a nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC. The two reports were released in conjunction with International Compost Awareness Week.

Submissions due by May 20

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is seeking Requests for Statements of Interest (RSOI) for active involvement in the development of dairy anaerobic digestion (AD) project(s) in Sacramento County, California. The objective of SMUD’s RSOI is to select a qualified project developer(s) to implement the project(s) in partnership with SMUD and local dairy farmer(s). The project(s) must be a turnkey, full-scale commercial anaerobic digester system, with possibility of codigesting other organic wastes for future expansion and in compliance with all siting and permitting requirements. The selected developer(s) will finance, design, build, own and operate the entire digester system in agreement with the dairy farmer and under SMUD’s fund disbursement requirements. Currently, SMUD has $920,000 grant funding available for one project.

Presently, at least one farmer with roughly 750 milking cows is interested in hosting a project at his dairy farm. Besides the grant money, SMUD will provide a long-term power purchase agreement (10,15 or 20 years), competitive rates for purchase of the electricity, possible purchase of carbon offsets, and assistance with permitting and grid interconnection.

The deadline for submissions is May 20, 2013 at 5 PM (PST). Only electronic replies via email will be accepted. Submit responses to Marco Lemes. All communications should be directed to Marco Lemes, 916-732-5871, or Valentino Tiangco, 916-732-6795.

View RSOI

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is home to about 7,000 dairy farms with an average herd size of less than 100 cows. While nutrient and odor management are of great importance to these farms, their overall economic viability appears to be the primary factor driving installation of anaerobic digesters over the past few years. “Pennsylvania has 30 dairy digesters and about 5 swine digesters right now,” says John Frey, Executive Director of the Center for Dairy Excellence (CDE), a nonprofit initiated in 2004 by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to enhance the profitability of the dairy industry. “About 10 of those digesters have been installed since 2010, and about another dozen were installed between 2006 and 2009.”

Historically, adoption of anaerobic digestion technology by the state’s dairy and swine farmers was driven primarily by odor management, notes Jay Howes, Deputy Secretary for Consumer Protection, Regulatory Affairs, and Dairy Industry Relations at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA). “One of the first digesters in the state was installed by Harlen Keener, a swine and dairy farmer on the outskirts of Lancaster, in the late 1970s. I remember him pointing to the skyline of Lancaster and saying, ‘this digester is the price of me being in business in this location.’”

While passage of the country’s first Nutrient Management Act in 1993 was a contributing factor to digester development in Pennsylvania, availability of financing from the state as well as the federal government has been the key contributor to installing systems over the past decade. These include loans and tax credits from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s REAP (Rural Energy for America Program) initiative, the stimulus dollars in the form of U.S. Treasury grants, and state financial assistance available through PennVest, the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA), Department of Environmental Protection and other entities. The financial support has made it possible for dairy and swine farms to build digesters.

Pennsylvania has 30 dairy digesters, including the one shown at Oregon Dairy, as well as around 5 swine digesters. About 10 of those have been installed since 2010.

“The CFA within the Department of Community Economic Development has grant funding and low interest loans available,” explains Frey. “The Board of the CFA has had favorable impressions of anaerobic digestion technology. It provides grants for up to 33 percent of capital costs up to a certain level, and about 33 percent cost coverage through low-interest financing. The CFA is funded through bond sales.”

Dairy Power Stakeholders Group

About two years ago, the CDE created the Pennsylvania Dairy Power Stakeholders group, which includes dairy producers with operating anaerobic digesters, and representatives from various state agencies, public utility companies, service providers and the Public Utility Commission. Facilitating implementation of on-farm biogas production to support the future profitability and viability of the state’s dairy industry and enhance its competitiveness is among the key points of agreement among stakeholders. Another key factor is use of digesters to control manure odors and enhance nutrient reduction, creating the ability for livestock operations to coexist with urban population centers.

“In addition to agreeing that AD plays a potential role in the future profitability of the state’s dairy industry, the group also agreed that the advancement and adoption of AD technology on dairy farms will require a commitment to the development and enhancement of a world-class Pennsylvania technical services and support infrastructure, explains Frey. “We also agreed that dairy-generated electrical power should be viewed as another locally produced Pennsylvania farm product and represents a potentially premium product for environmentally conscious markets.”

Identified barriers to adoption of AD by the state’s dairy industry include a lack of information and knowledge for dairy producers and advisors on the processes to plan, design, construct, implement and permit systems; need for capital costs to be subsidized by loans and grants to be economical; and lack of an ag-friendly permitting process for receiving off-farm substrates such as food waste. “A direct outcome of this group’s discussion was working with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection last year on a general permit for farm digesters to receive food waste and other energy-rich substrates,” says Howes (see sidebar). “From PDA’s standpoint, we would like to be able to facilitate solutions so we are not tripping over conflicting regulations. This is something that our department will continue to monitor and be of assistance. I think we will see more of that type of collaboration on rules and permits between state agencies and other stakeholders as the push continues to get food waste out of the landfill.”

To address the barrier related to a lack of knowledge for dairy farms to move ahead with projects, CDE is using a USDA grant awarded to the Center in 2010 to establish 10 “Dairy Transformation Farms.” Selected farms were already contemplating a transformational dairy business project and agreed to assemble a team of experts to help them navigate the process. Project areas included renewable energy. “Each transformation didn’t need to include a bioenergy or renewable energy component, but about half of them did,” explains Frey. “For example, one participating farm — owned by Clifford and Andrea Sensenig in Lancaster County — installed a digester that receives manure from their 100 dairy cows, along with an uncle’s 130 dairy cows and Cliff’s brother’s 200 hogs and 30,000 layer hens. Manure from the other two farms is piped underground to the methane digester on the Sensenig property.” CDE has documented their process of digester implementation; the information is available on the center’s website (www.centerfordairyexcellence.org). Plans are to have all “transformation case studies” catalogued on the CDE website by mid 2014.

More recently, the Dairy Power Stakeholders group partnered with a group of industry and nongovernmental organizations, including the Chesapeake Bay Commission, to conduct a research project to evaluate the pre and post digestion nutrient content of the manure. “The testing will be done on 10 dairy farms in Pennsylvania with digesters,” says Frey. “Nutrients will be measured pre and post digestion in liquids and solids. Some soil testing will be done as well.” Howes acknowledged that research should also be conducted on the effect that codigestion with food waste may have on the nutrient content of the digestate and effluent post digestion — and thus on the farm’s nutrient management plan. “That will be an interesting discussion to have going forward,” he notes, “and may be an unintended consequence of increasing biogas production by adding these substrates.”

Biogas Markets

Most of the operating farm digesters in Pennsylvania have engine generators to utilize biogas to produce electricity and heat. According to a 15-year schedule established by the state, electric distribution companies and electric generation suppliers are mandated to have certain minimum thresholds of renewable energy resources. For example, energy derived from solar photovoltaic energy, wind, hydro and biogas units must comprise 4.5 percent of the total electric sales during the upcoming June 1, 2013 – May 31, 2014 time period, explains George Beam, Senior Engineer-Regulatory Compliance with PPL Electric Utilities. Today, biogas generators in PPL Electric’s territory contribute more than 14 MW toward this goal.

“PPL Electric Utilities has interconnected with 14 biogas units,” says Beam, adding that these units are at farms, landfills and wastewater treatment facilities. “The farms are interconnected with a net metering system using a bidirectional meter. Any power the farm produces that is not utilized on site is supplied to PPL Electric Utilities’ grid.”

To qualify for a net metering interconnection, renewable energy producers start by completing an application on PPL Electric’s website. The application is reviewed, starting with assessing the size of the unit generating the power and determining the adequacy of the line to interconnect the generator. “For larger projects, we evaluate the application to determine if system reinforcements are needed,” explains Beam. “Next, our engineering department reviews the service requirements to ensure that the interconnected system will operate in a reliable manner.” The final step in the approval process is an actual inspection, known as the Certificate of Completion, of the interconnection facility to assure the system is safe to operate.

Once those three steps are completed, an account is set up to track monthly exports and imports of power, e.g., a farm may generate excess power some months, and need to utilize some of those “banked” kilowatt hours another month, adds Beam. PPL Electric is part of the PJM Interconnection LLC (PJM), a regional transmission organization in the Eastern (U.S.) Interconnection grid. This energy is monitored within a one-year cycle, which starts in June and ends the following May.

“May is when the PPL Electric customers can cash out the kilowatt hours that have been accumulated,” he explains. “Our price (cents/kWh) is based on a ‘price to compare,’ which is what the generator is paying for its load as a PPL nonshopping customer. For example, the current price to compare for residential power is 7.237 cents/kWh. That is the value during the cash out period that will be used for the customer. If the generator falls into a different customer category, they can go on our website to determine the current price to compare.”

In terms of possible interconnect challenges to farm digester power generators in PPL Electric’s service area, they typically are related to size of the engine installed (i.e., total nameplate kW), distance from the substation, size of the conductor, is it single phase or three phase, and if the lines are already heavily loaded. “Each installation is unique,” notes Beam.

Looking to the future of farm digesters in Pennsylvania, Frey and Howes emphasize that attention needs to be focused on servicing the needs of smaller dairies in the state, e.g., with 100 to 200 cows. “In general, our dairy farms are smaller and any digester technology that can be economical at a smaller scale would be ideal for Pennsylvania’s dairy industry,” concludes Frey. “The margins of dairy farming are increasingly volatile, and CDE focuses many of its initiatives at improving profitability. Anaerobic digesters are of interest to our dairy farms if they can provide supplemental revenue.”

Providing sufficient thermal energy is a fundamental requirement to successful AD operation. This primer reviews temperature requirements and methods to attain and maintain recommended values.
Kevin Jankowski
BioCycle May 2013, Vol. 54, No. 5, p. 36

Of the UK’s nonwater industry plants, 44 use agricultural feedstocks such as slurries and crops. One example is the Spring Farm anaerobic digester in Norfolk, UK.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been used to treat sewage sludge by the United Kingdom’s (UK) water industry for over 100 years. More recent years have seen a revolution as AD has swiftly expanded into agricultural feedstocks and food waste. Data from the Waste Resource and Action Programme (WRAP) shows that in the past year alone, there has been a 46 percent growth in the size of the sector. There are now 108 nonwater industry AD plants in the UK (April 2013) — up from 74 a year ago — with a further 169 projects having received planning permission. Another 146 AD plants are in the water industry according to Water UK.

The UK AD market is diverse with plants of a wide range of sizes, treating a variety of different feedstocks. Of the UK’s nonwater industry plants, 44 use agricultural feedstocks such as slurries and crops, 47 treat food waste from various sources including supermarkets and households, and 17 are based on industrial sites, treating on-site waste such as brewery effluent. Primarily because of the way the financial incentives regime developed, the vast majority of plants operating today are generating electricity through combined heat and power (CHP) engines, and making some use of the heat. However, the Renewable Heat Incentive was recently introduced, and the UK now has three biomethane to grid plants, including the first commercial scale plant launched by the Prince of Wales in Poundbury, Dorset, in 2012. The Renewable Heat Incentive offers financial support for 20 years for biomethane injected into the gas grid at all scales, as well as heat produced from biogas plants with a thermal capacity up to 200 kW.

To realize the real potential for AD to contribute to the circular economy — by making the best use of finite resources and recycling nutrients back into food production, energy and food security, climate change, air quality and the economy — there are still barriers that the industry must overcome. Anaerobic digestion’s multiple benefits can sometimes act as a handicap given the need for government policy to be joined up across policy areas as diverse as waste, bioenergy, transport and agriculture.

Food waste from households and commercial generators such as grocery stores is received at 47 nonwater industry digesters, including the Staples AD plant in Lincolnshire, UK.

Key Challenges And Solutions

To address these issues and support ongoing development, the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA), has highlighted six key challenges and their solutions:

The Investment Risk: AD is still reliant on government incentives to attract finance, build confidence and achieve growth. Potential investors can be nervous about uncertainty over tariff levels and key policies in areas such as waste, transport and bioenergy. Stability will come from long-term support at sufficient levels to reflect the risks, with capacity triggers (e.g., the 200 kW limit in the Renewable Heat Incentive) set at sensible levels and a workable preaccreditation system across all incentive schemes. At present, for example, the preset levels of deployment, if reached, will trigger reduced Feed-in-Tariff levels in April 2014. There is concern this has been set at too low a level, which could therefore cause investor confidence to be damaged. A preliminary accreditation model, which locks in a tariff rate prior to a project’s completion, can help to tackle this uncertainty.

Access To Feedstock: Irrespective of financial stability, without feedstock there is no AD industry. The best way to increase the volume of material available for processing through AD would be to support source segregated collections of organic waste and consider implementing a ban on biodegradable material sent to landfill, as the Scottish Government has done. Crops for AD are also a significant potential feedstock, offering additional benefits to farming over and above energy production, and should be clearly supported. Climate change targets cannot be met without sustainably produced bioenergy, but just as importantly, our nation’s food security is dependent on recycling the valuable nutrients contained in the food waste and other organic feedstocks.

Grid Connection For Biomethane:  Injection of biomethane (renewable natural gas (RNG)) into the grid could account for over 50 percent of biogas generated by 2030. To date only a handful of plants have gone down this route because of high costs and a range of technical issues, not least the Gas Safety Management Regulations (GSMR) that were established for natural gas and have some unnecessarily restrictive requirements. The anaerobic digestion and biogas industry needs a standard exemption for biomethane injection to be finalized, and the recommendations of the Energy Market Issues in Biomethane (EMIB) group — set up to review the particular challenges faced here — to be implemented. The EMIB group comprised the Department of Energy and Climate Change, National Grid, Ofgem, gas distribution networks, water companies and ADBA among others. Recommendations being addressed include reviewing the current requirement for biomethane injected into the gas grid to contain a maximum of just 0.2 percent oxygen, and allowing delivery facilities connected to gas distribution networks to be exempt from the need to hold a Gas Transporter Licence.

Biomethane As Transport Fuel: Using biomethane (compressed RNG) to replace diesel in heavy goods vehicles offers some of the greatest carbon savings possible from biogas. In addition, biomethane delivers significant reductions in particulate and NOx emissions, improving air quality. However current incentives do not directly support biomethane producers to upgrade biogas for vehicles. The industry needs the support provided by the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) to be comparable with the competing options of gas grid injection or electricity production. The RTFO supports use of biomethane as a transport fuel with the award of two Renewable Transport Fuels Certificates (RTFCs) per kilo of biomethane if the feedstock is from waste sources, and only one RTFC if it is not. The price of a RTFC is approximately 20p/kg ($0.31).

This is far below the level that a biomethane producer would receive for injecting biomethane into the grid under the Renewable Heat Incentive.

Food waste from households and commercial generators such as grocery stores is received at 47 nonwater industry digesters, including the Staples AD plant in Lincolnshire, UK. Photos courtesy of the Anaerobic Digestion & Biogas Association

Markets For Digestate: At present only eight of the AD plants treating waste feedstocks have achieved the PAS 110 standard, which means their digestate is no longer considered a waste. (See “Creating A Solid Base For Digestate Use In The United Kingdom,” October 2012 for more information about the PAS 110 standard for digestate.) Government and industry must continue to work together to support the development of a market for what is an immensely valuable product. The AD and biogas industry needs to foster dialogue between farmers, farm assurance schemes, food processors, the supermarkets and the AD sector to allow delivery of a high quality and usable product.

The Planning System: While many plants have found planning consent a fairly smooth process, others have faced serious delays and significant expense, with local communities objecting to development typically on the basis of perceived problems around odor and transport. A supportive planning system is essential to achieve growth of AD as sustainable food waste treatment option allowing the UK to make best use of waste resources. The new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) needs to be monitored to ensure it is applied consistently and that there is a waste management plan for England to support planning for AD plants across the country. The NPPF, published in March 2012, slimmed national planning guidance into a document of fewer than 60 pages, with its centerpiece being a “presumption in favor of sustainable development.”

Industry Growth

Growth of the AD industry is set to continue, with a large number of plants in the pipeline for 2013, helping to deliver the sector’s full potential of 35,000 jobs, £2 to £3 billion ($2.1 to $4.7 million) worth of ultralow carbon gas annually — that’s 10 percent of the UK’s domestic natural gas demand — security of energy supply, reduced consumer prices and greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time this will support food security and diversion of food waste from landfill, progress toward meeting climate change targets, and air quality improvements through use of low-carbon vehicle fuels.

Support through the financial incentives is still important as the industry is at a relatively early stage (just two plants outside the water sector existed in 2005). However, a great deal of work is happening within the industry to reduce the cost and complexity of developing projects, through best practice and streamlined due diligence, for example.

Matt Hindle is Policy Manager with the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association.

Sally Brown
BioCycle May 2013, Vol. 54, No. 5, p. 45

New Earth Compost and Soils — with facilities in San Antonio and Conroe, Texas — was born 15 years ago out of a local meat packing plant’s long-standing need to dispose of manure from its operation (see “Composting Integrated Into Family Business,” October 2009). It soon became evident that scores of other businesses in and around the San Antonio area, where the first composting facility was opened, shared equally challenging recycling demands. According to Rob Smith, general manager of the company’s Conroe site, New Earth today offers a full slate of products and services.

“Our company philosophy: ‘Pioneering waste solutions for future generations,’ really sets the tone for what we do,” says Smith. “We see the challenges that exist for disposing of green waste products, and have built a business around finding the best solutions possible to minimize their impact — today and down the road. We process a fairly sizeable volume of brush and tree waste to make that happen. In Conroe alone about 9,000 cubic yards (cy) of material get processed each week; the San Antonio location is almost three times the size of ours, so their volumes are obviously much larger, in the 25,000 cy/week range.”

Smith adds that, because New Earth’s customers have come to rely on the high quality nature of its products, both locations only accept clean debris for processing. “We don’t accept C&D wood waste, pallets or anything of that nature,” he explains. “We focus on only virgin material from area land clearing firms, landscapers, tree care services and so on. That has served us well.” New Earth products include a number of different sizes and colors of mulch, various bedding mixes, manure compost and other products that are sold in bulk, as well as 15 other products that it bags and palletizes.

Growing The Business

While the company’s San Antonio location has been accepting biosolids from local wastewater treatment facilities for about a decade, the Conroe site just began processing biosolids in the beginning of 2013, which it receives from several municipalities in the Houston area. Making that happen necessitated some major changes, including construction of a 16-inch-thick, 8-acre concrete pad and a 2.5-acre retention pond. A misting system, supplied by Piian Systems, was installed for odor control. Windrows are turned with a Backhus unit.

With last year’s drought and ban on burning, New Earth began doing off-site grinding. Its new Morbark horizontal grinder on tracks facilitates processing at other locations.

Several equipment purchases also assisted in the transition to the expansion into biosolids composting. This includes a Komptech MultiStar L2 screen and a Morbark 6600 Track Wood Hog horizontal grinder, which is key in providing the material to blend with the Class B biosolids.

“The decision to go with a new mobile horizontal grinder was really based on a number of factors,” notes Smith. “For one, because of last year’s drought and ban on burning, we started doing some off-site grinding for land clearing firms — essentially going to their sites to grind the tops and undesirable timber. Our crews appreciated the fact that they can take the grinder to the material instead of vice versa. We had a smaller machine at the time, so we felt that, if we were to continue building that part of the business, a larger grinder would get us into and out of those jobs quickly, allowing us to get back here to support the main operation. Currently, such off-site work is only about 5 to 10 percent of our business, but we can see that growing. In addition, some of our bigger customers have grinding needs, so this fits that scenario as well. With that capability, we can become more of a solution provider than simply a vendor.”

The Komptech star screen enables screening of high moisture materials.

He adds that although the new grinder burns more fuel than the older unit, those added costs are more than offset by the increase in productivity. “We are getting anywhere from double to triple the throughputs we were getting before — I’ll take that trade-off any time,” he says.

Screening And Bagging

New Earth has found that the Komptech star screen provides a much higher production rate than a traditional trommel, as well as enables screening of high moisture material. A PremiereTech AP Series High Level Palletizer, working in conjunction with the Conroe site’s bagging operation, rounds out New Earth’s process. In addition to ordering and stacking bags, each palletizer also tracks the number of pallets filled, units per minute, rejected bags and the total number of bags. “On average, we do about 90 to 100 pallets — roughly 5,400 to 6,000 bags — each day,” says Smith. “The system is so automated that we can run the entire bagging/palletizing operation with just two men.”

With the new biosolids composting operation coming on line in January, the Conroe operation essentially mirrors what is happening in San Antonio. “We are taking what they’ve learned at that location over the years — with regard to production, odor mitigation and so on — and putting it to practice here,” he adds. “Conversely, our owner, Clayton Leonard, is also taking what we’ve learned here, how we run our bagging operation, for example, and applying it to their operation.”

Larry Trojak is with Trojak Communications in Ham Lake, Minnesota.

Synthetic covers include polyethylene (PE) tarps, flexible vinyl fabrics, PE fleece blankets and expanded polytetrafluoroeth-ylene. Covers are used with both forced and induced aeration. Part III
Craig Coker and Tom Gibson
BioCycle May 2013, Vol. 54, No. 5, p. 21

The American Biogas Council (ABC) State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Committee’s (SLRAC) is actively supporting initiatives for organics recycling, anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas production in multiple states. Established as an adjunct to ABC’s federal Legislative and Regulatory Affairs committee, the SLRAC’s purpose is to advance the legislative and regulatory goals of the ABC membership within state governments and agencies, and to provide information and intelligence to the membership regarding state level developments affecting the industry.

The SLRAC’s goals for 2013 include: Introduce organics diversion plans in targeted states; Organize in targeted states via State Captains and Teams; Equip teams with model legislation and supporting data; Provide support for other policies, such as Renewable Portfolio Standards, Net Metering, grants, loans; and Link with US Composting Council (USCC) counterparts in key states to increase effectiveness and reach.

Organics Diversion Plans

In the last four months, progress has been made particularly on accelerating adoption of state organics diversion plans. Plans that mandate or otherwise provide overwhelming incentives for diversion of organic waste from landfills are seen as critical to ensuring sufficient feedstocks are available to enable cost-effective establishment of organics recycling infrastructure. To achieve this goal, the SLRAC first prioritized a short list of states for initial action by polling ABC and USCC membership and evaluating each state against member criteria. These criteria included a high concentration of organics within the state; presence of existing policies conducive to organics diversion and greenhouse gas reduction; and higher landfill fees and limited availability. The polling process resulted in a “Top 10” selection of California, Wisconsin, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Jersey.

The SLRAC then completed an initial gap analysis for organics diversion plans in the first five states — California, Wisconsin, New York, Washington and Massachusetts — to assess existing laws, regulations and rules for organics diversion compared to “model” organics diversion plans in which 100 percent of organics are diverted from landfills through some combination of mandates and incentives. The SLRAC drafted “model” diversion plan provisions using language from recently enacted measures in Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts. Key elements include an initial phased-in mandatory diversion of organics as the local infrastructure to appropriately process them becomes available, increasing from 25 to 65 percent diversion by the end of 10 years. Interestingly, Connecticut is already proposing to remove the provision that limits diversion mandates to available capacity and make the targets strictly time-based.

State Captains

A combination of ABC and USCC members have volunteered as State Captains to lead initiatives to implement enhanced organics diversion within these states. Activities in California, led by Julia Levin and the Bioenergy Association of California, have already included meetings with Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Assistant Secretary for Climate Policy at CalEPA and Scott Smithline, Assistant Director for Policy Development at CalReCycle to discuss enhancement of California’s 75 percent landfill diversion goals to include mandatory statewide organics diversion plans.

In New York, State Captain Kendall Christiansen and others have met with the New York Research and Development Authority, the state Department of Conservation and the New York Water Environment Association to discuss organics recycling and AD. Another source of support is Syracuse University, which has been assessing the benefits for diverting organics from landfills. And recently, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a program that would collect residential food scraps and yard trimmings from 3,500 homes and initially send it to a composting operation on Staten Island. An AD facility may come later.

While not yet a mandate, the Twin Cities area of Minnesota (which produces about half the total waste generated in the state) instituted an organics diversion goal. Marcus Zbinden, who leads USCC legislative outreach in Minnesota, reports the goal has increased public and private interest in the establishment of facilities to process the organics. His group is now working toward introducing legislation for a statewide organics diversion plan.

Other states are taking a broad approach to increasing the availability and use of biomass, including both the organics in MSW and other preconsumer sources. One example is in Indiana where more than 20 people have recently organized the “Task Force on Anaerobic Digestion” with assistance from the Indiana Biomass Working Group and Purdue University. The group will seek to improve the regulatory environment to foster increased collaboration between urban and agricultural sources of organics and availability of AD facilities to process them.

To learn more about SLRAC visit www.americanbiogascouncil.org.

Norma McDonald is Vice-Chair of the American Biogas Council (ABC), and Co-Chair of ABC’s State Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Committee. She is North American Sales Manager for Organic Waste Systems.

Michigan State University integrates AD with other biological processes to convert organic wastes into value-added fuels that are needed to enhance the economic and environmental performance of organic waste management.
Louis Faivor, Wei Liao and Dana Kirk
BioCycle May 2013, Vol. 54, No. 5, p. 29

Research can improve the economic viability of codigestion facilities and ease concerns of managers of water reclamation facilities about receiving additional organic waste and the potential for digester upsets. Part II
David L. Parry
BioCycle May 2013, Vol. 54, No. 5, p. 32

Quasar's q-bio adsorption technology binds nutrient-rich anaerobic digester effluent with woody waste materials such as yard trimmings to create a high value compost product.

Digester Effluent As Inoculant

A new process — q-bio adsorption technology — binds nutrient-rich anaerobic digester effluent with woody waste materials such as yard trimmings to create a high value compost product. Introduced by quasar, q-bio reduces composting time by up to 33 percent while achieving an optimal carbon to nitrogen ratio, according to Bruce Bailey, quasar vice president, Technical Affairs. The “Class A” equivalent product will be made at quasar’s digesters in Ohio. www.quasareg.com

Weltec Biopower's MULTIMix unit pulverizes fibrous and sticky input materials such as grass silage, solid manure and cosubstrates, increasing their surface area for more rapid decomposition in the digester.

Rugged Mixer For AD Systems

A “rugged liquid input system” from Weltec Biopower pulverizes fibrous and sticky input materials such as grass silage, solid manure and cosubstrates, increasing their surface area for more rapid decomposition in the digester. The MULTIMix unit also separates contaminants such as rocks and metals prior to input, decreasing risk of damage to the pumps and agitators. The pulverizing process is supported by a screw system that size-reduces the fibers. The MULTIMix can be installed at existing anaerobic digesters by placing it between the feedstock hopper and the tanks or fermenters. www.weltec-biopower.de

Komptech increased its manufacturing capacity by opening a new plant in Germany and expanding its existing facility in Ljutomer, Austria, to meet growing demand for its machines.

Expanding Manufacturing Capacity

To meet growing demand for its machines, Komptech increased its manufacturing capacity by opening a new plant in Germany and expanding its existing facility in Ljutomer, Austria. The Austrian plant can build six large composter turners, shredders or other machines at the same time, according to Komptech, as well as provide better economies of scale. The company adds that the expansion is helping meet demand for its Topturn compost turner, mainly in the North American market, which Komptech notes is its largest single market for that machine. It is focusing on servicing the market in terms of product design, production capacity, parts and service. www.komptechusa.com

Compost Containment System

Filtrexx domestically manufactures a patented tubular mesh containment system for composted mulch or humus used in a variety of applications, including sediment and erosion control, pollutant removal, Low Impact Development and agricultural applications. Compost-based filter media is locally sourced from a nationwide network of over 130 Filtrexx® Certified™ Manufacturers and Installers. In the past year, the company invested in 15 new manufacturing facilities across the U.S. to increase availability while decreasing delivery time and freight costs for customers in the field. www.filtrexx.com

The DustBoss® DB-R Ring™ from Dust Control Technology is designed for dust suppression at material discharge points, such as conveyors.

Dust Control Ring

The DustBoss® DB-R Ring™ from Dust Control Technology, designed for dust suppression at material discharge points, is now available in four new sizes (30-inch, 48-inch, 54-inch and 72-inch models). The stainless steel rings are mounted at the end of conveyor belts. They are tested to withstand pressures of up to 900 PSI, with brass atomizing nozzles that deliver millions of 50 to 200 micron droplets per minute. An optimal booster pump can be added to increase water flow and pressure, and units can be equipped with a two-way valve to provide manual control over water flow. www.dustboss.com

Herbicide Bioassay

Woods End Lab upgraded its herbicide bioassay to add risk evaluation for plant subcategories: sensitive, affected and insensitive. The new protocol is based on the lab’s Compost Matrix, a quality certification system developed for composters “that enables skillful placement into best use categories, or in the case of herbicide residues, helps avoid exposing a market segment to undue risk,” explains Will Brinton of Woods End. Application rate thresholds are provided. The lab also developed a method to screen raw source ingredients before they are added to compost mixes. www.woodsend.org.

The journey to achieving permanent sustainability — where adoption of sustainable practices is not done on a whim and subject to a return to the old ways — is both exciting and frustrating. Every issue of BioCycle, starting with the very first one in Spring of 1960, has featured the exciting parts of this long journey. Our editorial mission is to showcase programs, projects, policies, technologies and more that provide tools to achieve permanent sustainability. And there is never a shortage of examples to showcase!

Articles and news items in this May issue of BioCycle are cases in point. The Community Kitchen Academy in Burlington, Vermont, started by the Vermont Foodbank, utilizes highly perishable donated foods to create meals for area food pantries and teach culinary skills that result in foodservice jobs and college credits. Michigan State University is developing an integrated biorefinery) that is using campus food waste diversion, anaerobic digestion, algae cultivation and eventually production of cellulosic ethanol to enhance the economic and environmental performance of organic waste management.  In the United Kingdom, in the last year alone, over 30 nonwater industry AD plants have started operating, processing a wide range of source separated organic residuals.

A lead news item in BioCycle World highlights a just-released study from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) — “Pay Dirt: Composting in Maryland to Reduce Waste, Create Jobs, & Protect the Bay” — which found that 1,400 new full-time jobs could be supported in the state for every million tons of yard trimmings and food scraps converted into compost that is used locally.  “On a dollar-per-capital-investment basis, the number of jobs supported by composting versus disposal options was even more striking — 3 times more than landfills, and 17 times more than incinerators,” says Brenda Platt, lead author of Pay Dirt and director of ILSR’s Composting Makes $en$e project.

In Anaerobic Digest, we report that the Board of Commissioners of Dane County, Wisconsin approved the final agreements needed to proceed with a second community anaerobic digester in the county (the first began operating in 2011). The new digester will take manure from three farms — a total of about 2,400 to 2,500 cows — and convert it into a 2 MW project with the electricity sold to Madison Gas and Electric. The agreements also formalize private ownership and operations of the facility with Gundersen Health System, which set a corporate sustainability goal of being 100 percent energy independent by 2014. This includes renewable energy from biogas. Why is Dane County so involved? Because dairy farming is a $700-million a year industry in the county that supports 4,000 jobs, and nutrient runoff from dairy farms is a major contributor to growth of green algae and other weeds in Dane County’s many lakes.

Taken together, these examples illustrate that people are “getting it” — getting that the environment, the economy and communities grow stronger together. If the highly perishable food weren’t rescued through the Community Kitchen Academy, it would end up in the landfill generating methane. Gundersen Health Care can achieve its sustainability commitment, and Dane County can achieve its goals of sustaining the dairy industry and improving water quality at the same time. This is permanent sustainability. This is exciting!

So what is frustrating on this journey? That too many people aren’t getting it, especially our elected officials at the national level. As a nation, we continue to give lip service to sustainability, but take minimal substantive action to make it permanent. The solution? Keep making these exciting things happen, keep generating the buzz and, of course, make sure we are tracking what you do in BioCycle!

Agri Service, Inc.’s newly relocated El Corazon Compost Facility in San Diego

Oceanside, California:“New” Site For Yard Trimmings Composter

Operations got underway at Agri Service, Inc.’s newly relocated El Corazon Compost Facility not long before BioCycle’s 27th Annual West Coast Conference in San Diego in April. “We had the electricity connected about a week before the event,” says Mary Matava, president of Agri Service, who started her composting company in 1995. The property — for both the new facility and the original — is leased from the City of Oceanside, which is building soccer fields on the acreage just vacated by Agri Service. Residential yard trimmings collected curbside in Oceanside, as well as green waste from commercial landscapers, had been composted in windrows. The new facility is designed around a forced positive aeration system provided by Engineered Compost Systems. “We have a 12-acre site in total, with two half-acre composting pads that essentially mirror each other on each side of a central curing pad,” explains Matava. “As material is composted, it is moved toward the central curing pad.” There are 10 aeration zones on each pad. Windrows are turned with a new SCARAB that is fitted with a hood on the back that creates a furrow as it goes down the row, which facilitates adding moisture to the piles. Agri Service utilizes a Vermeer tub grinder and has a Rotochopper Go-Bagger for filling orders for bagged products. Also new to the facility is an electric-powered Doppstadt sorting station to remove contaminants from the curbside-collected yard trimmings. The site is permitted to compost source separated food waste, but wasn’t receiving any loads at the time of the BioCycle Conference tour. The new facility also features refurbished cargo shipping containers that are used for office space, a kitchen and soon, a gym for employees. Green roofs are being installed on

Toronto, Ontario: Compost Week Celebration Kicks Off With Amending Urban Soil

A few dozen downtown Toronto workers took a break from their regular jobs on Monday, May 6, to don aerating sandals, pick up pitch forks and help get a down-trodden, compacted lawn in a hidden garden near Bloor and Bay Streets ready for summer. The courtyard garden was the scene of a special gardening event hosted by the Compost Council of Canada to celebrate International Compost Awareness Week. Guests took part in a demonstration of how to amend compacted soil to prepare it for planting — aerating it and sprinkling it with compost and mulch. In addition, they helped staff at the office building plant flowers, herbs and vegetables in concrete containers surrounding the lawn.

Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Gord Miller, took his turn at turning the soil, stressing that providing the soil with organic matter is important “not only to our food supply, but to our water, air, climate, biodiversity and economy,” he said. “There is a tremendous need to extend the word. We have kind of strayed away from composting but need to get back to it, showing people how to feed the soil without chemicals. Also, well-aggregated soil is less prone to compaction.” Gord, appointed by the Legislative Assembly, is tasked with monitoring and reporting on compliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights, and the government’s success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in achieving greater energy conservation in Ontario. Other guests at the ICAW event included the Master Gardeners of Ontario, Toronto Master Gardeners, Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association and the Canderel Group of Companies, a real-estate company. The event was designed to let gardeners know that as they gear up for this year’s gardening season, the secret to their growing success will depend on the quality of the soil — which is greatly enhanced with compost.

Bethesda, Maryland: USCC Issues Position On Persistent Herbicides

The US Composting Council (USCC) recently released a position paper on compost and persistent herbicides. “The USCC calls on chemical manufacturers to withdraw herbicides known to persist in soil and compost with phytotoxic plant effects and to take responsibility for the damage these persistent herbicides cause, and [calls] on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state agencies to take immediate and decisive action to prevent further environmental and financial damage,” states the Council. Its 7-page position paper summarizes what persistent herbicides are and how they contaminate compost and provides a history of the impacts to the composting industry over the past decade. In the section about the ineffectiveness of labeling requirements, the paper states that “even if herbicide applicators are provided with clear and accurate instructions on the product’s warning label, there is still a long chain of communication that must be followed from application personnel to land owners, harvesters of plant residuals, brokers, processors, distributors, resellers, retail customer (farmers), haulers and finally compost facilities in order to prevent contaminated feedstocks from being received. It is virtually impossible to ensure that the integrity of this chain of communication will be maintained.”

\The final section of the paper, “Time For Action,” lists the steps that need to happen in order to protect compost manufacturers and users of their products. For the US EPA these include: Revoke the registration of all herbicides known to persist in compost at levels that are toxic to plants and require they be removed from the market; Develop a universal testing method for all persistent herbicides; Change the registration process for herbicides to require an evaluation of compostability and persistence in compost. For herbicide manufacturers, action items include being required to provide results of third party peer-reviewed research that demonstrates no adverse impacts of herbicides on plant growth following the composting process; taking financial responsibility for damages as well as needed laboratory testing; and immediately stop marketing and distributing persistent herbicides that render compost toxic to plants. The position paper can be downloaded at www.compostingcouncil.org.

The Community Kitchen Academy utilizes donated food products such as meat that are highly perishable and would otherwise be wasted. Culinary training includes trimming and knife skills.

In communities across the country, food donation networks for grocery stores, food service industries, restaurants and individuals are creating opportunities to capture food items and donate them to food rescue and hunger organizations. Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity with a network of over 200 food banks, distributes over three billion pounds of food and grocery products to food-insecure Americans annually. The challenge for donation programs arises with foods that are highly perishable, and thus must be prepared and eaten quickly, leaving little time for transport, storage and other logistical steps in the food donation process. But with every challenge comes the opportunity for a creative solution, which is exactly what has happened in the state of Vermont.

The Vermont Foodbank, a supported affiliate of Feeding America, has been successful at aiding as many as 86,000 Vermont residents with food assistance through its programs and networks in the state. Like many similar organizations, the Vermont Foodbank encountered problems when it came to donations of meats, dairy, produce or any other food product with a fast-approaching expiration date. But instead of deciding to not accept these items, staff at the Vermont Foodbank had a different thought. “We had the idea of developing a community kitchen program to recapture food that would be wasted to make meals to feed hungry people,” explains Michelle Wallace, Vermont Foodbank’s Program Director of the Community Kitchen Academy. The program is designed to utilize donated food products that are highly perishable and would otherwise be wasted as learning tools for students enrolled in the culinary job training program to make meals distributed via food assistance programs.

Academic Program

The Vermont Foodbank’s Community Kitchen Academy (CKA) began in Burlington, Vermont in 2009 in partnership with the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, the largest food shelf/pantry in Vermont. The program is intended to target individuals from vulnerable populations, many who are unemployed or underemployed and lacking employment advancement opportunities, and provide students with food safety and preparation skills, as well as training in professional activities like resume writing and interviewing. Each academic session is 13 weeks, with time split between the classroom and the kitchen. Meals prepared by students are either served immediately at the Food Shelf’s hot meal program, or vacuum-sealed and frozen for families to take home. Students graduate from the program “ServSafe” certified, a nationally acknowledged food industry standard for food safety. Kim Prendergast, a consulting project manager with Feeding America who works with community kitchens established by Feeding America member food banks, notes that this is particularly valuable for the students in their job search because food service establishments are required to have ServSafe-certified individuals on staff. “ServSafe is administered by the National Restaurant Association’s Educational Foundation, which provides discounts for the materials to programs like CKA,” she says.

In 2012, CKA received accreditation from the Vermont State Colleges Office of External Programs. Students who graduate may also receive nine college-level academic transfer credits. Of the roughly 30 culinary training programs in the Feeding America network, only CKA and another program in Cincinnati, Ohio have college credits available to graduates, notes Prendergast. “It is a wonderful additional service. Many students want to go on to get Associates Degrees. The CKA training is available at no cost, so it is a great jumpstart for students pursuing further education.”

Integrating a culinary job training program into a food rescue organization’s services was pioneered by the DC Central Kitchen in Washington, DC, note both Wallace and Prendergast. The DC Central Kitchen prepares 5,000 meals a day, and uses as much locally sourced food as possible. It purchases the food it prepares, which is required to be eligible for a USDA reimbursement to organizations providing meals to low-income children. “The USDA program has a lot of requirements for nutritional quality, which necessitates having to purchase food versus relying on donations,” explains Prendergast. “Revenue from sale of the meals plus the reimbursements support the overall programs.” The CKA utilizes over 95 percent donated food, adds Wallace. “We adhere to very good nutritional standards but our meals are not subject to verification by a nutritionist. Using donated product gives us a huge amount of flexibility. We basically create our menu using what comes in that day.”

Food Sourcing And Preparation

Located at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf in Burlington, CKA rescues food items that cannot safely be stored and redistributed. “The Academy can be really helpful when, for example, 50 pound boxes of chicken are donated, because these items are hard to distribute directly to families through a food shelf,” notes Wallace. “It provides flexibility by separating food for meal production, and for simple processing and repackaging.” The CKA also makes the turnaround for highly perishable food much faster. Students are in the kitchen preparing meals every day with the ingredients available, and thus items like dairy or produce can be quickly incorporated. Because typical meals provided through food assistance programs tend to lack protein, dairy and vegetables due to the abbreviated shelf life of these items, CKA has become an essential service.

The CKA uses produce donated from grocery stores and other outlets, as well as from Vermont Foodbank’s gleaning program that works with farms in Vermont to harvest excess or unmarketable produce.

Vermont Foodbank also operates a gleaning program, harvesting excess or unmarketable produce from farms in Vermont. About 250,000 to 400,000 lbs/year of produce are harvested by volunteers and farmers in local communities throughout Vermont. “Because our trucks are on the road all over the state collecting and distributing food, it is just a matter of them picking up produce that already has been harvested,” explains Wallace. “Most of what we pick up is topnotch quality but the shelf life is very short and needs to be eaten or processed quickly. That is where the Academy plugs in.”

Reciprocal relationships exist between food donors and employers of graduates from the CKA program. “Representatives from the food service industry and restaurants become partners in many different ways — as employers, donors, supporters of the program, even speakers at graduation,” says Wallace. “It is a very positive experience for everyone. This is also important because a great fit for many graduates of the program are institutions like hospitals and universities. For a single parent, one of the best possible places for employment may be a school or health-care facility where the schedule can accommodate the needs of working families.”

Since 2009, twelve 13-week sessions have been conducted at the Community Kitchen Academy, graduating 87 students with an 86 percent success rate in job placement or continuing education.

The most exciting part about Community Kitchen Academy is the success it has had. Since 2009, twelve 13-week sessions have been conducted, graduating 87 students with an 86 percent success rate in job placement or future education. During each session, Wallace estimates between 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of food are rescued, equating to about 10,000 meals per session. In total, over 108,000 meals have been prepared to feed hungry Vermonters. The most unique aspect of the CKA program is that the success for many students is full circle. Wallace explains that many of the students in the program are or have been recipients of food aid. After participating in the thirteen-week session, students are gaining employment and maintaining it, and in turn becoming food secure without the need of assistance programs.

The Vermont Foodbank plans to open a second Community Kitchen Academy in Barre, Vermont, in partnership with the Central Vermont Community Action Council in July 2013. Wallace says that organizations that deal with poverty in Barre are expressing lots of interest and excitement in the idea, giving her confidence that the program will be well received in that community as well.

The benefits of community culinary training programs touch on all three pillars of sustainability: Social, Economic, and Environmental. By offering an educational and training service to a vulnerable population, as well as providing meals to those in need, Community Kitchen Academy achieves social goals. According to Vermont state officials, the hospitality and food service industry has been identified as “in need of trained employees.” Academy graduates are exactly that, thus achieving an economic goal for the state. But in general, increasing the employability of unemployed and underemployed individuals provides obvious economic benefits. And as for environmental, reusing food products that would otherwise be disposed of is a necessary step in complying with Vermont’s new “universal recycling” legislation passed in July 2012.

Nate Clark is a Contributing Editor to BioCycle. He recently earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from the Rubenstein School for the Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont.

BioCycle’s REFOR13 Call For Papers Is Open

The 13th Annual BioCycle Conference on Renewable Energy From Organics Recycling (REFOR13), October 21-23, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio, is accepting abstracts for presentations. New for REFOR13 is a concurrent session track dedicated to Food Recovery and Recycling, including reduction, separation, collection, preprocessing and the integration of anaerobic digestion and composting. The other tracks encompass the full spectrum of BioCycle’s coverage of production of renewable energy and high value products from municipal, agricultural and industrial organic waste streams.

The Call for Papers is on the REFOR13 website, www.biocycleenergy.com. Suggested topics include: Anaerobic digestion — municipal, farm, industry; Project development strategies; Feedstock sourcing, preprocessing and contaminant removal, blending; System management and optimization; Biogas markets: power, vehicle fuels, renewable natural gas; AD systems for MSW organics; Codigestion at WWTP digesters; Small-scale AD systems for commercial, farm applications; Solids separation, digestate, compost and co-products markets; Integrating AD and composting, models for profitability; Full circle food stream management — source reduction, donation, recycling; Siting and community outreach; Project financing; and Odor management options. Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words. Deadline for abstract submittal is July 15, 2013.

Jobs And Soil Protection — Pay Dirt!

Composting is a major job creator according to a new report released on May 8 by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC, in conjunction with International Compost Awareness Week. According to the report, “Pay Dirt: Composting in Maryland to Reduce Waste, Create Jobs, & Protect the Bay,” 1,400 new full-time jobs could be supported in the state for every million tons of yard trimmings and food scraps converted into compost that is used locally. Collectively, these jobs could pay wages ranging from $23 million to $57 million. Based on a survey of Maryland composters, Pay Dirt found that, on a per-ton basis, composting sustains twice as many jobs as landfilling and four times the number of jobs as burning garbage. On a dollar-per-capital-investment basis, the number of jobs supported by composting versus disposal options was even more striking — 3 times more than landfills, and 17 times more than incinerators, says Brenda Platt, lead author of Pay Dirt and director of ILSR’s Composting Makes $en$e project. Many of these are skilled jobs such as equipment operators, with typical wages in the $16 to $20/hour range.

ILSR also released a companion paper, “Building Healthy Soils with Compost to Protect Watersheds,” which details how compost use can reduce watershed contamination from urban pollutants by an astounding 60 to 95 percent. Because compost can hold 20 times its weight in water and acts like a filter and sponge, it can reduce soil erosion and prevent storm water run-off, huge issues impacting the Chesapeake Bay and other impaired watersheds in the United States. Markets for compost are growing in part due to the expansion of sustainable practices associated with green infrastructure such as green roofs, rain gardens and low impact development. “For every 10,000 tons per year of compost used for green infrastructure, we found that another 18 jobs could be supported,” says Platt, adding that “support for composting equals support for a made-in-America industrial sector.”

Maryland House Delegate Heather Mizeur (District 20) emphasizes the importance of staying focused on both job creation and protecting the environment, and that “composting marries the two perfectly.” Mizeur sponsored successful composting legislation in 2011 and 2013 allowing state agencies to update permitting regulations and make recommendations on how to improve composting in the state. Pay Dirt calls for a moratorium on building new trash incinerators while new regulations and support for composting are put in place. By doing this, Platt contends, “our communities will benefit from cleaner air, more jobs, enhanced soil quality, healthier watersheds and more resilient economies.” Both reports were produced by ILSR’s Composting Makes $en$e Project with funding support from the Town Creek Foundation and the University of the District of Columbia’s Water Resources Research Institute. They are available at www.ilsr.org/initiatives/composting.

WWW.Findacomposter.Com Update

BioCycle’s on-line directory, www.findacomposter.com, is in the process of being updated and expanded (see page 6). Launched in 2007 by BioCycle and the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), FindAComposter is the only comprehensive, public and free on-line directory of composting facilities in the U.S. and Canada. BioCycle, BPI and several BPI member companies are collaborating to verify/update current listings and add additional ones. Growing numbers of generators are seeking outlets for their food waste streams as well as other source separated organics. In addition, FindAComposter is utilized by consumers looking for compost to buy.

If your composting facility is currently listed in www.findacomposter.com, take a moment to review your listing and make any changes. If you are a composting facility in the U.S. or Canada and are not listed, please take a few minutes to create a listing. Only regulatory-compliant (i.e., permitted, registered and/or officially exempt from permits) composting facilities will be listed in the database. Any type of permitted composting operation is eligible for inclusion, including food waste composting sites located at universities, colleges, correctional facilities, restaurants, hotels and on-farm operations that typically are exempt from permitting requirements but are registered with (or have notified) a regulatory agency. All listing, are reviewed and verified by BioCycle editors before they become active in the on-line directory. Please contact biocycle@jgpress.com with any questions.

Best Option For Managing Zero Waste “Leftovers”

A quote by Anthony Orlando, CEO of Covanta, in an issue of Waste & Recycling News last year (4/16/12) got Eric Lombardi, Executive Director of EcoCycle in Boulder, Colorado thinking that it might be time to conduct an in-depth environmental impact analysis on the options available to manage materials remaining in the waste stream after maximizing the zero waste strategies of source reduction, recycling and composting. Said Orlando: “We think [our clients should] absolutely [be] pushing the recycling, but then looking to do the best with what’s leftover after that recycling. And clearly, the answer, whether you listen to the [European Union], the U.S. EPA or any kind of policy initiative, the best environmental answer after you’ve recycled is to convert what’s left over into energy.”

Lombardi’s thought turned into action, which resulted in release of new lifecycle analysis report that compares the three most common disposal methods used globally — landfilling with energy recovery, mass burn waste-to-energy or mechanical biological treatment (MBT). The report, “What Is The Best Disposal Option For The ‘Leftovers’ On The Way to Zero Waste,” finds that the most environmentally-sound disposal option for the remaining materials was Materials Recovery, Biological Treatment (MRBT), a process to “pretreat” mixed waste before landfilling in order to recover additional dry materials for recycling and to stabilize the organic fraction with a composting-like process that minimizes greenhouse gas and other emission impacts caused by landfilling. Very similar to the MBT systems used widely in Europe, the goal of MRBT is to capture any remaining recyclables and then create inert residuals that will produce little to no landfill gas when buried. The system can also classify nonrecyclable dry items to identify industrial design change opportunities, which helps to drive further waste reduction.

The analysis used an Environmental Benefits Calculator developed by Jeffrey Morris of Sound Resource Management to compare MRBT, mass burn waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy across seven environmental categories, including climate change, water and air pollution and human health impacts. The MRBT system was shown to be the best choice for a community to dispose of its leftovers because it recovers the greatest amount of additional recyclables, stabilizes the organic fraction of the residuals and reduces the amount of material landfilled. “MRBT is not a replacement or substitution for source separation, but it is a tool for helping communities reduce the environmental impacts of managing their leftovers as they progress on their way to Zero Waste,” notes Lombardi. MRBT infrastructure is also flexible and dual-purposed, able to handle both mixed waste and source separated recyclables and organics, explains the report. This means a community is not tied to feeding the facility a continuous flow of mixed waste over the next several decades. Rather, the MRBT model can adjust to a declining volume of leftover waste and support growth of source separated collection systems. In addition, MRBT infrastructure can be built and operational on a shorter time scale than landfills and incinerators, and can be modular in size to help communities manage their leftover waste more locally. In addition to Lombardi and Morris, other contributors to the report are Enzo Favoino of Scuola Agraria del Parco di Monz and Kate Bailey of Eco-Cycle. The full report is available at www.ecocycle.org/specialreports/leftovers. The authors will hold two webinars to explain the results and methodology of the study on May 23rd and May 30th.

National Assessment Of Water Availability And Use

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, also known as the SECURE Water Act, calls for establishment of a “national water availability and use assessment program” with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). A major driver for this recommendation was that national water availability and use have not been comprehensively assessed since 1978. A new USGS report, “Progress Toward Establishing A National Assessment of Water Availability and Use,” fulfills a requirement to update Congress on progress in implementing the program, also referred to as the National Water Census. The Census synthesizes and reports information on regional and national scales, with an emphasis providing the assessment in a way that states and others responsible for water management and natural resources can use. The USGS also works with other federal agencies and organizations to ensure that its data can be aggregated with other types of water-availability and socioeconomic information, such as data on food and energy production. The report to Congress can be accessed via http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1384/.

 
If you answered YES …
Review and verify that  the  information in your listing is up-to-date.
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If you answered NO …
Visit findacomposter.com and enter your composting facility information today!
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BioCycle’s on-line directory, www.findacomposter.com, is in the process of being updated and expanded. Launched in 2007 by BioCycle and the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), FindAComposter is the only comprehensive, public and free on-line directory of composting facilities in the U.S. and Canada. BioCycle, BPI and several BPI member companies are collaborating to verify/update current listings and add additional ones. Growing numbers of generators are seeking outlets for their food waste streams as well as other source separated organics. In addition, FindAComposter is utilized by consumers looking for compost to buy.

If your composting facility is currently listed in www.findacomposter.com, take a moment to review your listing and make any changes. If you are a composting facility in the U.S. or Canada and are not listed, please take a few minutes to create a listing. Only regulatory-compliant (i.e., permitted, registered and/or officially exempt from permits) composting facilities will be listed in the database. Any type of permitted composting operation is eligible for inclusion, including food waste composting sites located at universities, colleges, correctional facilities, restaurants, hotels and on-farm operations that typically are exempt from permitting requirements but are registered with (or have notified) a regulatory agency. All listing, are reviewed and verified by BioCycle editors before they become active in the on-line directory. Please contact BioCycle with any questions.
 

Lori Scozzafava, Executive Director, US Composting Council

From the US Composting Council:

The United States Composting Council (USCC) is pleased to announce Lori Scozzafava as its new Executive Director. Ms. Scozzafava is a highly experienced association executive who has been involved in solid waste management for over 25 years. “Lori’s extensive industry and association management experience will help the USCC and its membership reach their goals and rise to a new level,” said Lorrie Loder, President of the USCC. Ms. Scozzafava replaces former USCC Executive Director Michael Virga, who has moved on to other career opportunities. “We truly appreciate all of Mike’s contributions and efforts at the USCC and we wish him the best of luck,” Ms. Loder added.

Ms. Scozzafava was Deputy Executive Director of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) from 2004 through 2012 and has extensive experience managing budgets, government affairs, education and annual conference activities. During her tenure she helped the organization increase membership and revenue. Prior to serving as Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Scozzafava was SWANA’s Director of Technical Programs and the Recycling Services Division Manager for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

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• Outstanding faculty of over 80 speakers
• Tradeshow with more than 50 companies
• Dedicated track on food recovery and recycling
• All Day Site Tours of Anaerobic Digestion and Composting Facilities
• Preconference workshops

Plan now to be with us in Columbus, Ohio
BioCycle’s 13th Annual Renewable Energy From Organics Recycling Conference — REFOR13 — promises to be the best yet!

BioCycle’s REFOR13 Conference brings together the who’s who of the anaerobic digestion and renewable energy industry. This is the Conference where participants get the latest on technologies and practices to turn municipal, agricultural and industrial organic waste streams into power, renewable natural gas, vehicle fuels and high-value digestate and compost products. Network with your colleagues in Columbus:

• Project developers and operators
• Public officials and permitting authorities
• Organic waste generators and managers
• Utilities and biofuel suppliers
• Investors
• Industry executives
• Researchers and equipment providers

Current Sponsors:
Ohio EPA
quasar energy group
Organics Recycling Association – Ohio