Implementation of anaerobic digestion facilities in the food and beverage industry
In food and beverage production processes take agricultural biomass as input. These production processes result in biogenic by-products and waste, often very aquatious, that can be very valuable feedstocks for generating bioenergy through anaerobic digestion. This report investigates scenarios to integrate a biogas plant to the food and beverage production facilities, using either residues, wastes, by-products or wastewaters as feedstock.
In this context, it is important to pursue a cascading utilisation concept which prioritizes re-use and food/feed application of the by-products prior to energy utilisation. The production of biogas is an attractive option, since food and beverage production processes are energy intensive, and biogas is a multi-purpose energy carrier. Using the renewable gas for the food and beverage production, based on the ‘process generated’ by-products and waste the overall carbon footprint of the food and beverage production process is reduced.
The report provides detailed feedstock characteristics and gives a guide to the food and beverage industry – one of the largest agricultural industry sectors globally – on how a biogas project should be pursued and which typical questions arise. As a practical report a variety of international examples of biogas plants that are integrated into the food and beverage industry are shown: meat industry, breweries, distilleries and potato processing sites. Typical plant details are given such as: location and operating company, investment, biogas production, energy utilisation and reactor size and type.
Figure 1: Interactions between agriculture, food processing, food and feed consumption and energy
supply (reproduced with the kind permission of the World Biogas Association).