Dive Brief:
- Veolia recently signed a five-year contract to help boost performance at the Lowell Energy Anaerobic Digester (AD) facility in Lowell, MI.
- Managed by Sustainable Partners (SPART), the new $6.6 million facility uses food waste and cow manure to create methane.
- The gas powers an 800KW combined heat and power engine which generates electricity to be sold to Lowell Light and Power. Veolia has been tasked with increasing biogas and power output.
Dive Insight:
Veolia is based in France and has more than 174,000 employees working on water, waste, and energy management worldwide. In 2014, the company converted 31 million metric tons of waste in new materials and energy. SPART has said that this wide range of expertise made them a good fit for the project.
"We have seen consistent improvement in the plant's performance since Veolia began operating in February this year," Greg Northrup, principal at SPART, said in a press release. "Veolia's experience in waste-to-energy was just what the plant needed."
Other recent Veolia projects include a new mechanical biological treatment facility outside Sydney, Australia that will have annual capacity for 200,000 metric tons. The company has also teamed with Covanta to construct a new waste-to-energy facility in the U.K. that will have annual capacity for 480,000 metric tons and 50 MW of energy.
