Sustainability and green energy are at the forefront of a business in San Luis Obispo. Kompogas, an anaerobic digestion facility, has been converting organic waste into renewable energy and distributing organic compost to local farmers and daily gardeners.
Kompogas SLO can power 600 homes by processing more than 72 million pounds of waste every year, and is a zero-waste factory from start to finish.
“Waste is our energy. We emit nothing.” said Thomas Gratz, sales manager of Hitachi Zosen USA, Kompogas’ parent company. Graz took a full tour of Neil Hebert of KSBY, visiting facilities that inject green energy into the Central Coast.
“The whole process is to reduce our carbon footprint and protect our environment for future generations by transferring organic matter from landfills. Organic matter in landfills produces methane gas, and greenhouse gas emissions are more than carbon dioxide. 20 times lower.”
The working principle of the process is as follows: Put organic waste such as grass clippings, leaves and kitchen residues into the green trash can and wait for the garbage day. These wastes are taken to the facility and discarded. Then remove contaminants such as plastics and metals, as well as other materials. Cut the organic waste into small pieces, grab all the remaining metal with a magnet, and then transport the waste to the anaerobic digester through a conveyor belt.
The anaerobic digester is a sealed anaerobic storage tank used to generate green energy in the form of biogas and compost in a 14-day process.
Graz said: “This is a heating process at 131 degrees Fahrenheit. It takes 14 days to remove all volatile organic compounds and convert them into renewable energy in the form of biogas.” “(This happens with your stomach The situation is very similar; the digester literally digests organic waste and produces gas and energy from it.”
20% of the product is converted into natural gas, which is then sold to PG&E and placed on the grid. The rest is liquid or solid compost, which is either provided to farmers or sold to commercial agriculture.
“This is actually the compost in the final processing and screening step,” Gratz said with his hands full of compost. “This is the supplier of all organic and pure natural soil amendments in the region. We don’t want to discharge and waste it and send it to a treatment facility. In fact, we gave it to farmers to replace fossil fuel fertilizers.”
“We have plants that use compost and they become food. If we don’t eat it, the food will be excreted, and the digestion tank will eat it and produce more compost and more energy to grow more. Food, so this is a complete cycle.” Gratz said.
But before you throw all the trash into the green bin, something should not be included.
“Treated wood, clay pots, plastic film and things of similar nature,” Graz said of the items to be taken out of the trash can. “It doesn’t matter, soiled food paper is like wrapping paper for things that are not wrapped in plastic.”
Kompogas will hold an open day for anyone who wants to compost a garden or field from 10 am to 2 pm on April 10. When trash cans or empty truck beds appear, Kompogas will fill them up. Kompogas is located at 4300 Old Santa Fe Road in San Luis Obispo.
Post time: Mar-18-2021