Lystek International Ltd. has reportedly announced the positive results from its multi-year demonstration project for converting food waste to energy in Goleta, California. The company, as the lead project proponent, has been working with the California Energy Commission, University of California-Santa Barbara, and Goleta Sanitary District on this project. In 2017, it received partial funding from the CEC for this project as a part of the EPIC (Electric Program Investment Charge) program. Under this demonstration project, SSO (source-separated organic) food wastes obtained from the UCSB are being pre-processed by adopting Smicon, an innovative de-packaging technology, in Europe and co-digested in mobile anaerobic digesters. Smicon technology has been aiding test digesters by offering acceptable and clean organic slurry. A primary goal of the project is to validate that source-separated organic waste can be de-contaminated for efficient anaerobic digestion to an acceptable level, i.e. typically less than 1%. According to Jim Dunbar, General Manager for California Operations of Lystek, the Smicon technology can be developed for operations that range from the current demonstration-sized unit to full commercial-sized unit. The project will offer real-world information to be leveraged by solid waste and wastewater professionals to determine the importance of managing SSO and other food waste material. He further added that the company’s partnership with Goleta Sanitary District will offer data for increasing biogas production and optimizing digester. This will reduce GSD’s dependency on sources of energy based on carbon and solidify its position as the ideal resource recovery facility. The project aims at verifying the energy conversion potential and the amount of biogas from SSO processed material. This will become a favorable alternative for managing organic waste material than landfilling and other traditional practices. Lystek will end the 1st phase and submit the results of the project to the CEC in the next few months for future publication. GSD and the company will investigate the use of its patented low-temp thermal hydrolysis process, LysteMize and LystekTHP to optimize anaerobic digestion. The 2nd phase of this project will continue throughout the rest of 2020. Source credit: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/17035/lystek-food-waste-to-energy-project-shows-positive-results
