By Scout Mata and Katie Hetrick, FOA Communications
August 07, 2024
The Renewable Energy Anaerobic Digester, or READ facility, at UC Davis has a storied history of innovation and challenges – a common balance when finding solutions to evolving technologies. Since taking ownership in 2017, UC Davis Facilities Management has dedicated itself to revitalizing the READ facility, working with academic and industry experts to find creative solutions. Learn more about the recent $4.7M CalRecycle grant.
Side Effects of Converting Food Waste to Power
A regular day at READ involves processing 20 tons of food and grease trap waste from local grocery stores and campus dining commons – waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill – and turning it into energy. Semi-trucks deliver food waste in plastic garbage bags, which are then separated by depackagers into an organic fraction (food) and contaminants (mostly plastic). The organics are liquified into a slurry and converted into biogas.
However, this process also generates ammonia in concentrations that are too high for disposal and processing at the campus’s wastewater treatment plant, yet too low to be valuable as fertilizer. Proper disposal of this ammonia-rich digestate became costly. More>>