By: Deborah Johnson Wood
If the folks from Metropolitan Energy and Organics (MEO) have their way, companies and manufacturers across Michigan will soon be using clean food waste and paper goods made from plant materials to produce two eco-friendly outcomes: natural gas to reduce petroleum dependence, and clean compost to nourish the fields that produce the plants for food and paper.
Sustainable Research Group (SRG) and Marion Bio Energy established MEO, and the group has approached several companies in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Lansing to develop the technology locally. Negotiations are in process.
“Transition to a plant-based economy will grow more things on the land and produce the need to add nourishment back to the soil,” says Bill Stough of SRG. “This organic compost is the best thing to use. We see compost playing a very large role, and we can extract fuel before making the compost and end up with two products.”
The food/plant-based materials will come from vendors or manufacturers. The equipment to build the anaerobic digesters is already on the market, and MEO ran a pilot to ensure that plant-based paper goods work for the compost. They do.
“Companies buy biodegradable coffee cups and plates, but those eventually go in the landfill, just like plastic,” Stough says. “We propose to use the biodegradable cycle to send it back to the land and fertilize the next crop used to make that product.”
As for the methane gas produced by the composting process, MEO will locate the biodigesters next to a company or manufacturer and pump the gas directly to their boilers.
Source: Bill Stough, Sustainable Research Group
Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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