Wednesday 12 April 2017

UK firm to showcase waste-to-energy system in US

A British firm is to supply California's Energy Commission with its innovative waste-to-energy system.

Southampton-based SEaB Energy has been awarded a contract to provide the department with its anaerobic digestion 'FLEXIBUSTER' product as part of a four-year research programme into sustainable energy generation from food waste.

From October, it will be used to demonstrate the viability of the technology at a US Naval Base in Ventura County.

Every day it will process around 2,500kg of mixed food waste that is no longer fit for human consumption and which will be collected from local enterprises.

Using this as a feedstock, it will deliver 480MWh/year of renewable electricity to be used on the naval base itself.

As a decentralised, onsite solution, it removes the need to transport waste to a dedicated anaerobic digestion facility and thereby avoids creating additional emissions.

SEaB Energy CEO and Co-Founder, Sandra Sassow, said: "This is a prestigious win for SEaB Energy and gives us coast-to-coast visibility in the US where we already have a burgeoning pipeline of contracts to fulfil this year.

"British engineering and manufacturing has an important place in the UK economy and we’re very proud to be creating jobs and exporting worldwide."

A new risk assessment suggests businesses promoting waste to energy projects have a 30-year track record of “failures and unfulfilled promises”.