WASTE TO ENERGY – PROVEN APPLICATION OF MIXED HOUSEHOLD FOOD WASTE AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC WASTE TO PRODUCE BIOGAS AND DISTRICT HEATING
Jon McAteer, Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies
(free)
There have been various attempts to install and operate Green Energy plants throughout
Europe with varying degrees of success. This paper will discuss the factors that have had a
significant impact on the design, operation and maintenance of waste to energy plants in
Denmark. Experience will be drawn from a number of plants many of which have been in
operation for over 10yrs, all generating electricity and some providing district heating.
A case study will be presented on a fully operational plant that currently receives a mix of
domestic food waste and high organic matter liquid industrial waste. The various technical
issues that have been overcome and those that are still to be completely resolved will be
reviewed. The disposal route and quality of the final sludge will be shown, with other options
that are utilised on different plants.
On some successful sites the problem has now become the amount of solids/ waste to digest
is greater than the anaerobic reactors can handle in the mesophilic range. It will be shown
how to increase the throughput of existing reactors, whilst maintaining good biogas production
by conversion to operate in the thermophilic range.
