Brits Seeking a “Huge Increase” in Anaerobic Digestion

The UK’s new government is aiming for a “huge increase” in anaerobic digestion, requiring “two plants built each week over the next ten years” estimates the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA).

Framing their efforts as part of a larger “war on waste”, the Tory/Lib-Dem Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plan includes the collection of thousands of tons of food waste, which will serve as feedstock for new anaerobic digestion plants such as the Selby Renewable Energy Park we reported on in May.

Why would the new Tory-led government favor anaerobic digestion?

As an island nation, England is a nation of port cities who go to considerable expense to transport their waste inland. Food waste takes up 15-20% of the municipal waste stream, and yard waste, 5% of it.  Instead of being transported to landfills, this waste can be a valuable resource, and can be put to its highest and best use: anaerobic digestion and composting.  The government recognizes this opportunity and is putting these resources to work.

Also, as a participant in agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol, Britain is aiming at reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Anaerobic digestion has the potential to contribute to that effort. According to the Chicago Climate Exchange draft guidelines, a single ton of food waste will emit .872 metric tons of CO2 equivalent over 10 years (this is assuming a GHG capture effort after 3 years). This makes AD a hugely attractive alternative energy. Even factoring in the emissions of waste transportation (about 6 kg per ton when trucked 25 miles), and the emissions resulting from combusting the resulting biogas (about 280 kg of CO2 for each ton), the saved CO2 equivalent is still .580 tonnes for each ton digested and combusted rather than landfilled.

Lastly, AD is the rare renewable energy that provides a consistent baseline load (unlike wind or solar, which are much more variable), making AD a sensible early component of a robust portfolio of renewable power. Moving forward in a world with limited environmental and economic resources, we need everyone at the table, including AD.  To learn more about the vision for 1,000 biogas plants by 2020, check out the ADBA website, or attend their conference July 7-8, 2010.

Organics Recycling Industry Proactively Addressed Florida’s HB 569

By Tom Kelley

On June 2, 2010, Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist demonstrated his commitment to recycling: he vetoed House Bill 569 that would have repealed a state-wide ban related to yard waste disposal in landfills.  The organics recycling industry, led by the United States Composting Council and supported by multiple state and national organizations and companies, took a proactive stance and wrote letters to Governor Crist.  He got the message: the ban on yard waste benefits the economy and the environment. Here’s how.

• Recycling yard waste helps Florida’s small businesses. Florida has 264 registered facilities that manufacture compost and mulch from yard trimmings.  The industry provides 1000’s of jobs.  These small businesses are for the most part owned and operated by Florida residents who sell their products to other Florida businesses, keep profits within the state and use the services of other small businesses.  The Institute for Local Self Reliance recently documented that composting creates four times as many jobs as land-filling the same material.
• Recycling yard waste contributes to energy independence. Yard trimmings, due to its high lignin content, decompose slowly and only partially in a landfill environment, contributing an insignificant amount to Florida’s energy needs.  These organic materials are put to better use through composting.
• Allowing yard waste in landfills hurts the environment. Only a fraction of the methane that is generated in landfills is captured by the collection system (estimates vary considerably: the EPA puts the capture rate at 75%, while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that over the landfill’s entire life that rate may be as low as 20%).  The methane that escapes is 30 times more harmful to global climate change than the carbon dioxide that is generated when yard waste is composted instead of land-filled. That does not count the missed benefits to the environment from composting including improved water quality, reduced irrigation needs, water conservation, healthier plants and improved storm water management. As Florida State researchers have shown, compost’s benefits would help improve yields in a number of crops.
• Recycling yard waste is in line with laws and the US EPA. Title 29, Chapter 403, section 703 of the Florida Statutes, defines “Recycling” as “any process by which solid waste, or materials that would otherwise become solid waste, are collected, separated, or processed and reused or returned to use in the form of raw materials or products.” Burying yard waste in landfills, methane collection or not, is NOT recycling, because there is no return to use.
• Recycling yard waste affirms the position of Solid Waste Management Association of North America (SWANA), the national association representing the landfill industry. A joint position statement in 2006 by SWANA and the USCC states that advances in landfill technology “should be accomplished without encouraging more organics to be placed in landfills, and without reversing hard won and effective programs and regulatory efforts that have raised recycling rates for organic residuals. Energy recovery, in bioreactor or conventional landfills, must be pursued without relaxing recycling initiatives and without improperly creating incentives for more land disposal.”

In addition, of the 23 states that have bans in place on land-filling yard debris, NONE have been overturned. In 2003, Governor Vilsack of Iowa, set a precedent for a governor’s veto of a ban repeal passing the legislature when he stated that without his veto, “this action will be a major step backwards for integrated solid waste management.”

Floridians have a proud history of protecting the environment and looking for ways to recycle organic materials.  The Florida Legislature committed a huge error in passing this legislation, but the organics recycling industry joined together to communicate the environmental and economic impacts of yard waste bans.  The good news, Governor Crist did the right thing, —he vetoed this bill.

Thank you, Florida, for continuing to recycle yard waste.

Renewable Biogas – Is it too valuable to waste?

If you’re interested in the future of renewable energy and want to learn more about biogas and anaerobic digestion technology, your chance is right around the corner. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute will host a free, public briefing on capturing and using renewable biogas from urban and agricultural waste streams in an effort to help address our nation’s climate, energy, and resource management challenges.

The event is set to run from 3-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 16,  in Rooms 203/202 of the Senate Visitor Center, Washington DC.

Renewable biogas is generated from the natural, anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in landfills, livestock manure, and wastewater treatment plants.  The methane in biogas is a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change, but it is also a potential renewable energy source for heat, power, and transportation fuel.

Those in attendance can learn about existing federal programs to promote renewable biogas in dairy and livestock operations.  Hear about anaerobic digesters, gasification systems, and other technologies that turn organic wastes into renewable biogas. Consider current challenges and potential policy solutions to developing this renewable energy resource.

Speakers for this event include:

• Daniel LeFevers, Executive Director, Washington Operations, Gas Technology Institute
• Christopher Voell, AgStar Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (invited)
• Marisa Uchin, Manager, Federal Government Relations, Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation
• Wayne Davis, Vice President, Incentives and Regulatory Affairs, Harvest Power, Inc.
• Arne Jungjohann, Program Director Environment, Heinrich Boell Stiftung

Today, most biogas is released to the atmosphere.  According to the most recent EPA data, in 2008, methane from landfills accounted for 126 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO₂e) of methane (22% of all U.S. methane emissions due to human activities); livestock manure management accounted for 45 MMTCO₂e (8%); and sewage wastewater treatment systems accounted for 24 MMTCO₂e (4%).  In terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, capturing all of this methane would be the equivalent of removing millions of vehicles from the roads.

As a renewable energy source, it could provide heat and power for hundreds of thousands of homes or provide the energy equivalent of billions of gallons of gasoline as a low-carbon, renewable transportation fuel.  Since our farms and cities already collect and concentrate so much organic waste, why not use it as a renewable energy resource and turn a waste stream into a revenue stream for dairy and livestock producers and waste management agencies?

The event is free and open to the public. There is no need to RSVP. For more information, contact Ned Stowe at  nstowe@eesi.org or call (202) 662-1885.

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