Waste-to-Energy: Veolia Boosts Anaerobic Digester’s Performance, Enginuity’s BioCoal Helps Power Plants Meet Emissions Regs

After helping a waste-to-energy facility boost its power output, Veolia has signed a contract with the plant’s owner for continued operations and maintenance.

Commissioned in 2015, the Lowell Energy biogas-to-electricity facility in Lowell, Michigan has sought to maximize its 800KW power output capacity.

Under the five-year contract with Lowell Energy AD, managed by Sustainable Partners (SPART), Veolia is charged with improving performance of the Lowell Energy Anaerobic Digester to increase biogas and power output.

The $6.6 million privately funded plant uses food waste and cow manure in an anaerobic digester to create methane that powers an 800KW combined heat and power engine. The electricity generated is sold to the local municipal utility, Lowell Light and Power.

SPART selected Veolia to operate and maintain the Lowell Energy facility because of the company’s wastewater and energy operations expertise, said Greg Northrup, principal at SPART.

The partnership is currently engaged in feasibility studies for a number of distributive energy projects — both biogas fired and natural gas fired — in the food processing, medical and manufacturing sectors.

In May Veolia partnered with waste-to-energy company Covanta to develop a waste-to-energy facility in the UK.

In other waste-to-energy news, biotechnology company Enginuity Worldwide has been awarded a $250,525 grant from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality to develop its BioCoal fuel.

Enginuity’s rotary compression technology turns waste streams — such as eastern red cedar, corn stover, sorghum stover, animal manure and woody waste — into biomass called BioCoal Fuel. The company says the product can be used as a cost-effective solution for existing coal-fired power plants to meet carbon emission targets by co-firing the product alongside current coal supplies without making facility alterations.

The grant is part of the DEQ’s effort to reduce Nebraska’s waste while expanding its renewable energy portfolio.

Enginuity Worldwide founder and CEO Nancy Heimann says the grant will help the state’s 15 coal-fired power plants to meet emissions targets.