World’s Largest Dry AD Facility to Open November 22nd
San Jose Project Features Zero Waste Energy Kompoferm Technologies
Zero Waste Energy Development Company, Zero Waste Energy and the City of San Jose have teamed up to achieve the ambitious goal of designing and building what will be the world’s largest dry anaerobic digestion facility. At 90,000 tons per year of organic waste, the system will produce 1.6 MW of electricity and an estimated 34,000 tons of high-quality compost. Not only will the system maximize the efficiency of its organics to produce energy and compost, but it will also move the city closer to its Green Vision Goal of Zero Waste to Landfill and Energy from Waste by its 2022 target.
Zero Waste Energy (ZWE)’s high solids AD technology will address the City’s priorities: generating renewable energy and alleviating odor problems. It will resolve the City’s commercial food waste issue, as the Kompoferm system requires minimum pre-processing and can be delivered and loaded using traditional solid waste trucks and loaders. The Kompoferm will also process organics with manageable amounts of contamination, maximize diversion, and produce both local renewable energy and a digestate that can be composted to create a landscape-quality compost.
The San Jose anaerobic digestion project is ambitious in size and scope. When completed, it will be the world’s largest dry AD system, generating 1.6MW electricity. It will feature 16 Kompoferm AD digesters and 4 in-vessel composting (IVC) tunnels to process up to 90,000 tons per year of organic waste throughput in a fully enclosed and ventilated waste processing facility. It will also include 2×800 kW combined heat and power system, mechanical pre-treatment, accessible piping chamber at the digester rear-wall, containerized process equipment on the digester roof and dual-mode lean-gas/emergency flare.
“The City of San Jose is proud to partner on the development of our world-class facility, which showcases the City’s Green Vision through public-private partnerships, cutting-edge technology development, and environmental sustainability,” says Kerrie Romanow, City of San Jose Environmental Services Department Director. “As the capital of Silicon Valley, this type of leading edge project propels the City as a leader in diverting waste from landfill and converting it to usable, clean energy.”
In addition to moving the City of San Jose closer to its Green Vision Goal, the system will achieve the California AB 32 mandate by diverting almost 85% of organic waste from landfills and generating 1.6 MW of renewable power that complies with California’s Renewable Portfolio Standards. The electricity will provide on-site power for Zanker Road Resource Management and be sold to California-based electric service providers.
Zero Waste Energy is a development and technology company that designs, builds and operates integrated waste recovery facilities throughout the Americas and Asia. Kompoferm is a state-of-the-art thermophilic dry AD system exclusively licensed to ZWE for organic waste processing. Kompoferm features a sub-grade percolate tank which significantly reduces percolate and biogas process piping as well as the size of the motors and fans necessary to move these process media. The basement percolate tank greatly enhances the overall thermal efficiency of the process. All process controls and mechanical equipment are preinstalled in special containers delivered to the project site and ready for installation on the roof of the digester, saving significant time and labor.
The opening of the San Jose plant will take place on November 22nd with more information on the event to come.
