Dive Brief:

• Blue Sphere Corp.'s waste-to-energy facility in Charlotte, NC — which broke ground in March 2015 — will soon be completed, according to a press statement.
• The $27 million facility is undergoing a "White Test" of its equipment, which is a process that ensures the components of the facility are working properly without actually feeding waste into the system.
• The 5.2 megawatt biogas facility will use food waste to generate renewable energy. 

Dive Insight:

Blue Sphere has been quite active in the waste-to-energy market, having also announced plans to build a similar facility in Johnston, RI. That project is a joint venture of Blue Sphere Corp. and York Capital Management. 

"We are very excited for the Charlotte facility to be entering its final stages of development," said CEO Shlomi Palas in a statement. "We look forward to seeing this amazing facility become operational. We will release a similar update about our Rhode Island facility as well as other updates shortly."

Using waste-to-energy as a method to process and properly dispose of food waste was a hot topic at the recent WASTECON event in Indianapolis. Kevin Roche, CEO of ecomaine, made a point to defend the use of WTE during a session titled "The Great Organics Debate." Meanwhile, Patrick Sullivan of SCS Engineers defended the option of landfilling organics, Risa Weinberger of Risa Weinberger & Associates promoted the method of composting, and Craig Bartlett of Durhamn, Ontario favored the use of anaerobic digestion. 

While it was not settled during the debate which method is the "best" for processing food waste, it was clear that each method has its own benefits and consequences — something Blue Sphere will be sure to face in the coming months.