From waste to biogas

You can cook on one banana peel for 20 minutes

Banana peels, eggshells or whole pieces of pizza: we still throw away a lot of food. Digesters convert vegetable, fruit and food waste into biogas. The small power plants can now be found in hotels, restaurants and holiday parks.

Founder of the BioTransformer had already played with the idea of a compact biodigester several times. That started when he worked as an energy consultant for all-inclusive hotels. He saw that the remains of buffets were often dumped into the sea. It's a shame, because this waste can be a source of energy. He also told this to a Turkish hotel owner at the time, who went out on the water in a boat and threw food scraps overboard.

That advice was taken to heart, as became apparent during the next working visit. A large hole had been dug containing the food waste. Over it lay a tarpaulin that was bulging due to the formation of gas. Very dangerous, if you ask me. Things can explode in a moment. They heated the hotel's swimming pools with the energy he generated himself. I thought: heck, it works.

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Good basic

Such digesters turned out to be nowhere available. Everything is for sale, but not that. The owner set out to create such a machine himself. He ordered a book called 'What is bio-fermentation?' and watched dozens of videos on YouTube. He used the knowledge he gained to create the prototype. This turned out to be very successful. It produced three times as much gas as the literature thought possible. The result was so good, they thought the gas meter was broken. But a new meter showed the same thing. They decided to hire a biochemist, someone who really understands it. Tests and measurements were carried out for a month, but again the conclusion was that the values were correct. They have improved the biodigester since then, but the basis is still the same.

Process locally

The fact that the BioTransformer is so efficient is partly due to the local processing. In the Netherlands this is done centrally. Waste is collected, transported and often goes into the incinerator. There are weeks between the first and last step. By then, 70 percent of the energy has already dissipated. By processing it directly and decentrally, you get much more energy from residual flows. To make it concrete: one banana peel produces enough biogas to cook for 20 minutes. Local processing also ensures that waste no longer has to be transported to one place.

Smart software

The biodigesters are given a helping hand by artificial intelligence. Everything that disappears into the digesters is registered by, among other things, photo recognition software. This gives users insight into the composition of their waste. If a lot of broccoli ends up in a restaurant's bio-digester as standard, then it is a good idea to adjust purchasing accordingly. The BioTransformers also learn how to best process certain food waste. The smarts are in the cloud. The machines at different locations learn from each other. A digester at a hotel knows how to best process leftover pizza slices if an Italian on the other side of the country also has a biodigester. That information is shared back and forth.

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Natural process with a modern twist

The company describes the digesters as a natural process with a modern twist. It is comparable to a wheelie bin where the waste is thrown in. The machine then goes to work and fermentation takes place. The output is biogas. This can be used for cooking, but it can also be burned in the boiler. This way, the green gas can be used for heating and showering. The company works very closely with Remeha, which is developing a special boiler that can run on 100 percent biogas. It is also possible to mix. The boiler initially runs on biogas. Only when that runs out will natural gas be fired. This reduces the use of fossil fuels.

Alternative to fertilizer

The biodigesters also produce so-called biowater. The watery substance can be used as a soil improver. That is already happening. There is a digester in a hotel on the Canary Islands. The biowater is used for the adjacent vineyard. There is also an example: plants are fed with it in Landal's holiday parks.

Biowater could eventually be an alternative to artificial fertilizer. A project is underway in collaboration with Wageningen University and Research (WUR) to extract nutrients from biowater. If that works, it could partly replace fertilizer. If we can reduce the use of fertilizer with this, that is great news. About eight percent of the total gas demand comes from fertilizer production. We can't live without it.

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Growing customer base

There are now forty BioTransformers operating at hotels, campsites and restaurants at home and abroad. Requests also come from outside Europe, for example America. I'm convinced that local energy production is the future. It creates involvement. A campsite owner with his biodigester proudly tells his guests that they shower and wash dishes by using food scraps. This encourages waste to be separated even better. People feel much more about that than energy supplied by anonymous energy giants.

Calculates

To increase its customer base, they considering collaborations with leasing companies in the future. Think of an as-a-service model. This lowers the threshold, because entrepreneurs do not have to put the purchase price of a biodigester on the table all at once. This way we will hopefully be in more locations and make more impact. This is also interesting in view of the overcrowded power grid. Some companies are now having to scale back their production because they cannot get an extra connection. Then it pays to be self-sufficient. If we can convert the biogas into electricity, this problem will be solved.

Although the business case will soon be completed. Thanks to the biodigesters, companies save on gas and CO2 emissions. It can also prevent food waste: all food remains are registered. The biowater can save costs on fertilizer or other soil improvers. It also benefits the work experience. In restaurants, staff are happy with the digester, because they have to dispose of fewer full garbage bags. The knife cuts on multiple sides. That makes it a good business case. Whether companies choose biodigesters because of costs, convenience or ecological considerations does not matter. The impact remains the same.

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