Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I N O. I JA N UA R Y 1 1 , 2 0 1 6 18 F or several years now, Adam Wintle and Dan Bell have been pitch- ing the concept that burying food garbage in landfi lls is a huge waste of a renewable energy source with numerous environmental benefi ts. at message wasn't exactly embraced, they say, by the garbage haulers, commercial landfi lls and trash-to-energy companies that didn't want to divert food waste tonnage from their revenue streams. So Wintle and Bell did what any entrepreneur with a disruptive busi- ness idea would do: ey created their own company. Since mid-2013, Agri-Cycle Energy has been delivering food waste col- lected in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire as additional feed- stock for the two 400,000-gallon anaerobic digesters operated by Exeter Agri-Energy, the company Wintle and his siblings created in 2011 to trans- form cow manure and other organ- ics into bio-gas as a way of assuring the continuing fi nancial security of their extended family's neighboring 1,000-milking cow Stonyvale Farm. e recent completion of a $1 mil- lion food waste processing plant — featuring Maine's fi rst "de-packager" that separates discarded, damaged or expired food products from their boxes, cans or cartons — puts both compa- nies in a strong position to capitalize on a growing national movement to reduce the amount of food going into landfi lls. e de-packager makes it feasible for supermarkets, hospitals, food manufacturers and even munici- palities to send food waste to Exeter knowing that it will become a source of renewable energy instead of buried garbage rotting in a landfi ll. "We never intended to be a food waste collection company," says Wintle, who is managing partner of Exeter Agri-Energy and the principal owner of Agri-Cycle Energy. "We learned quickly that there wasn't a community of haulers that had an interest in transporting food waste to this facility, because they have an interest in controlling that tonnage and sending it to landfi lls and waste- to-energy plants that benefi t from that tonnage. We were, more or less, a 'threat' to their interests." "We now have the operating infra- structure in place to really execute," he adds. " e last year has been not only building equipment resources but personnel resources as well to have an eff ective team from soup to nuts. We P H O T O / JA M E S M C C A R T H Y Waste not, want not Two Maine companies team up to convert food waste into clean energy B y J a m e s M c C a r t h y P H O T O / JA M E S M C C A R T H Y Dan Bell, general manager of Agri-Cycle Energy, and Adam Wintle, managing partner of Exeter Agri-Energy, are poised to accept more food waste as feedstock for the two 400,000-gallon anaerobic digesters located at Stonyvale Farm in Exeter. Exeter Agri-Energy 226 Fogler Road, Exeter Commissioned: 2011, came online early 2012 Managing partner: Adam Wintle Investment: $6 million in two, 400,000-gallon anaerobic digesters Power capacity: 1 megawatt combined heat/power generator Daily treatment volume: 32,000 gallons, currently 25% food waste and 75% cow manure Biogas produced by anaerobic digesters: 60% methane/40% carbon dioxide Renewable energy production: 4 million BTUs/hour of heat, replac- ing 700 gallons of heating oil every day and enough to heat 300 Maine homes on an annual basis. 23,500 kilowatt hours of electricity daily, enough electricity to power up to 1,000 households annually Additional benefits: Supports continued viability of Stonyvale Farm, a neighboring 1,000-cow dairy farm, by creating clean animal bedding from solids recycled from digester's effluent and an odorless liquid fertilizer that's spread on the farm's 2,500 acres. Contact: 347-0483 www.exeteragrienergy.com Agri-Cycle Energy 73 Bell St., Portland Founded: 2013 General manager: Dan Bell Investment: $1 million, including first de-packager in Maine Waste disposal: Currently 25,000 tons of organic wastes, with capacity to expand up to 50,000 tons at Exeter collection facility Employees: 10 Environmental benefits: One ton of food waste processed at the anaerobic digester offsets more than 15 passenger vehicles per day. Every ton of food waste eventually produces 200 gallons of natural liquid fertilizer applied to Stonyvale Farm's croplands. Contact: 1-800-850-9560 www.agricycleenergy.com

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