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V O L . X X I I N O. I JA N UA R Y 1 1 , 2 0 1 6 20 Massachusetts General Hospital, the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center, Fidelity and a variety of restaurants and institutions sending their food waste to Exeter Agri-Energy as feedstock for its anaerobic digesters. Finally, Maine's failure to achieve a statewide 50% recycling rate by 2014 as required by an earlier law, is spurring a closer look at composting and anaero- bic digestion as key solutions to meet that goal. at's because almost 30% of almost 1.8 million tons of municipal solid waste in the state is discarded food, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. "In just the last three years we've seen tremendous forward momen- tum through the food waste ban in Massachusetts, the conversation with Augusta and the general public in Maine who want to divert organics and increase our recycling rates," says Bell, a partner with Wintle who serves as Agri-Cycle Energy's general man- ager. "All of that's right in line with the type of things that are going to help our business continue to succeed and create renewable power and do things that are socially, environmentally and economically friendly to this region." Achieving the right balance When Exeter Agri-Energy went online with its anaerobic digesters in early 2012, it had a ready supply of cow manure from the 1,000 milking cows and another 800 or more heifers, calves and "dry" cows at the adja- cent Stonyvale Farm to jumpstart its closed loop energy-producing system. But food waste has always been part of the feedstock mix of about 30,000 gallons pumped daily into the two 400,000-gallon digester domes just below the dairy barns. e ideal blend is 50:50, but Wintle says the Exeter digesters are averaging 20,000-plus gallons of manure and 10,000 gallons of food waste per day for a 75:25 blend. Wintle and Bell expect the de-pack- age will spur higher volumes of food waste coming in, since it has the capac- ity of processing up to 20 tons of food waste an hour. at will help Exeter Agri-Energy achieve the optimum blend of feedstock going into its digest- ers. Any extra volume beyond what's needed in the daily mix can be stored in one of the 26,000-gallon storage tanks for pumping later on into one of the domed anaerobic digesters in carefully controlled amounts with cow manure. e anaerobic fermentation process takes about a month to complete, with the methane-rich bio-gas being burned onsite to create heat and power a gen- erator that sends electricity to the grid under a 20-year power contract at 10 cents per kilowatt hour. "Today Agri-Cycle manages on the order of 25,000 tons per year of food waste, " Wintle says, noting its cli- ent list in Maine includes Hannaford, Whole Foods, Colby College, Walmart, Fore Street Grill, Street & Co. and AdvancePierre Foods, owner of the Portland-based Barber Foods, which makes stuff ed chicken breasts and other chicken products. "Exeter as a facility can handle upwards of 50,000-plus tons per year, on its own." Bell quickly adds that even if the food waste volume eventually exceeds the capacity of Exeter's two digest- ers, Agri-Cycle Energy is building a network of other anaerobic digester companies in New England that might need additional food waste for their own operations. "We're providing, in eff ect, an overfl ow mechanism for this food waste to be processed later on here or at other facilities," he says. e de-packager's ability to effi - ciently separate packaging from expired or damaged foods has already benefi ted Hannaford, which has 188 stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and New York and is one of Agri-Cycle Energy's primary customers. e Scarborough-based super- market chain received the Grocery Stewardship Certifi cation from the Manoment Center for Conservation Sciences in early 2015 for its sustain- ability practices, which included the diversion of 125 million tons of waste from landfi lls that prevented more than 430 million pounds of green- house gases from being emitted. Company spokesman Eric Blom says the company's eff orts to reduce food waste include "making sure we don't carry more inventory than we need" and donating to local food banks still- usable items that for various reasons can no longer be kept on its shelves. " e de-packaging has always been the most challenging aspect for us in moving forward on our zero food waste goals," he says. "You simply can't open up every expired food package every day at every one of our stores. It's just not feasible." As soon as Agri-Cycle Energy's de-packager was up and running this fall, Blom says, 40 Hannaford super- markets in the central and northern part of the state immediately reached that zero food waste goal. Having the ability to introduce organic waste into the digesters, in just the right amount and at just the right time, is part of the unique "edge" that Exeter Agri-Energy has developed at Stonyvale Farm, says Wintle. Its two anaerobic digesters have helped the state's second-largest dairy farm reduce its overhead costs, he says, by converting what had been a problem waste, cow manure, into bio-gas that produces enough heat to replace 700 gallons of heating oil on average and 22,000 kilowatt hours of electricity every day. On an annual basis, that's enough energy to heat 300 New England homes and enough to power as many as 800 households. Now add to that the byproducts of comfortable animal bedding made from broken-down fi bers strained from the digester domes and organic fertilizer from 6 million gallons of effl uent pumped from the digesters into storage lagoons for eventual spreading on the farm's 2,500 acres of cropland. "We've laid the foundation and we're poised for growth," says Bell. "I feel like over the last three years we've worked out a lot of the kinks that startup companies would have to go through. We've learned what works and what doesn't work and we've put together a very competent capable team that can now go out and execute and drive this conversation. It can help take care of a problem that oth- erwise wouldn't have a good solution." J M C , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r writer, can be reached at @ . and @ J M » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E come home Car WarM to a per day $10 open 4:30am to 1am or later. Drive 100 yards past baggage claim, look for our green sign. WWW.parknjetportland.CoM 747-5650 valet parking at the airport Get engaged, inspired and connected with a print + digital subscription to Mainebiz. You'll receive bi-weekly issues, special publications and full online access! Know Maine Business. Or call: 845.267.3008 Subscribe online: mainebiz.biz/knowmainebiz

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