CIWMB Press Room Archives

Green Technology Paving the Way to Less Waste, More Clean Energy: Organic materials diverted away from landfills can also help to battle climate change

California Integrated Waste Management Board Chair Margo Reid Brown visited the newest green technology, energy-producing facility to highlight the need for new technologies capable of generating clean energy while diverting materials away from landfills and curbing dangerous greenhouse gases.

The Biogas Energy Project at the University of California, Davis can process eight tons of leftover restaurant table scraps into clean, renewable energy at this research and technology demonstration facility. From each ton of broccoli spears, cantaloupe rinds, fish bones and more, the project hopes to produce enough energy to power 10 California homes.

“We’re proud to be working with our technology and educations partners to support this project, and divert food scraps away from the landfill and toward the generation of clean energy,” said Brown. “The UC Davis research team has done tremendous work, and we hope to see it serve as a model for other California jurisdictions who also seek green solutions to our energy and climate challenges.”

The Biogas Energy Project is the first large-scale demonstration in the United States of a new technology developed over the past eight years by Dr. Ruihong Zhang, a UC Davis professor of biological and agricultural engineering. The technology, called an "anaerobic phased solids digester," has been licensed from the University and adapted for commercial use by Onsite Power Systems Inc.

The goal of this innovative public-private alliance is to divert organic materials--such as food waste and yard clippings--away from landfills and into the energy grid. This is important because organic materials release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as they decompose in landfills.

This biogas digester turns trash into a substantial source of clean energy.

Most of the initial funding was provided by the California Energy Commission and the Board also awarded a $125,000 research grant, and along with grants from the federal government and private sector helped to get this newest green-technology reuse facility up and running.

This kind of technology has been widely used across Europe and in municipal wastewater treatment plants and livestock farms for years, but the UC Davis project differs from other anaerobic digesters in three key ways:

• It processes a greater variety of wastes--both solid and liquid--including food scraps, yard trimmings, animal manure, and rice straw. More than five million tons of food scraps are disposed in California landfills each year.
• It works faster, turning waste into energy in half the time needed by other digesters.
• It produces two clean energy gases--hydrogen and methane. Other digesters produce only methane. The gases can be burned to produce electricity and heat, or as a fuel source for hydrogen fuel cell cars, trucks, and buses.

For more information on this program, visit the CIWMB's Conversion Technologies page.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board is the state's leading authority on recycling and waste reduction. It promotes reducing waste whenever possible, managing all materials to their highest and best use and protecting public health and safety and the environment.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board is one of six boards, departments, and offices within the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA).

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