Community Scale Digester with Advanced Interconnection to the Electrical Grid
Demonstrating an innovative anaerobic digestion system using high-rate biodigester technology.
Organic Energy Solutions, LLC
Recipient
San Bernardino, CA
Recipient Location
23rd
Senate District
45th
Assembly District
$4,618,517
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
By the end of the extended term (March 2020),
the project team successfully installed, and is now operating, the innovative anaerobic
digester system incorporating CleanWorld's high-rate biodigester technology to
process organic wastes from a local waste hauler and high-strength slurry. The project
demonstrated the capability to produce at least 8,760 MWh of renewable
electricity to be sold to Southern California Edison under the SB 1122 Bioenergy Feed-in Tariff. It also
demonstrated the concept of load-following power output without excessive
on-site storage.
The Issue
Digester systems have the potential to play an important role in providing renewable electricity while reducing California's greenhouse gas emissions. Despite a regulatory environment encouraging renewable energy production and greenhouse gas reductions, there is a need for technology to lower the system cost as traditional methods require high capital costs to remove organic materials from the wastewater stream to create good quality slurry for an anaerobic digester system.
Project Innovation
The project installed and operated an innovative anaerobic digestion system using a high-rate biodigester technology that will process approximately 50 tons per day (TPD) of organic waste from a large supermarket distribution center and 50 TPD (20,000 gallons) of high-strength slurry created by recovering and concentrating organics in wastewater streams. This project is co-located with the Co-West Commodities Wastewater Pre-Treatment Facility - an operation that collects wastewater (carbs, sugar, protein, and fat, grease, and oil) from industrial businesses and pre-treats the material for disposal into the local sewer system.
Project Benefits
The project demonstrated the use of electrical generation powered by digester gas to provide reliable power to a critical facility during outages on the grid. The electricity from this project will be exported to the SoCal Edison distribution grid through a SB 1122 Bioenergy Feed-in Tariff. The system will also be equipped with islanding capability to support the critical facility during an interruption in the grid.

Affordability
The method developed by this project would lower the system cost, resulting in a significantly lower price of electricity compared to traditional or fossil generation. The estimated LCOE is $122/MWh.

Economic Development
The co-products are 1,226 tons of residual solids for vermicomposting feedstock per year and 1.6M gallons per year of liquid effluent for fertilizer.

Environmental Sustainability
The project will divert and use food wastes to generate electricity that will yield reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, with a net offset of 4,125 MT CO2e/year. It will also improve environmental quality by providing clean energy while improving wastewater quality and reducing odor via anaerobic digestion.

Reliability
This project will provide reliable renewable electricity without the need for standby and backup power and capable of providing power during peak energy demand.
Subrecipients

Clean World Partners, LLC

Stantec Consulting Services Inc.

Best, Best & Krieger

York Engineering, LLC

RS2 Energy

Gary M. Lee, dba Lee & Company

Foley and Lardner, LLP

Pettit

Cristopher Francis Architecture

Baker Tilly Virchow Kraus, LLP

Babcock Laboratories, Inc.

David Shutte

Peterson Consultation Services

MPI Process Inc.

Stellar J Corporation

Match Partners

Clean World Partners, LLC

Organic Energy Solutions
