E-MADGic Concept
E-MADGic Concept – Organic Waste-to-Energy & Food Closed Loop System
C2Biotechnologies has developed a concept that combines enzyme technology and consulting services to develop and construct operations to convert feedstock, recovered resources and waste streams into energy and agricultural products. Our E-MADGic Concept targets customers with one to five tons of waste per day and involves integrating three processes: 1) bio-fuel enzyme production, 2) microbial anaerobic digestion (MAD), and 3) green house operations.
E-MAD: An enzyme enhanced anaerobic system will be developed for energy production operations where waste streams are digested and then converted into bio-gas, very much like a mechanical cow. Digester operations will generate methane and soil that can be used for fuel and the growth of agricultural products.
Green House: Production of agricultural products in an all year state-of- the-art green house will depend on client's input as well as C2B consulting to identify profitable operations. Vertical growing technologies are used to increase productivity. Agricultural products may include foods, decorative flowers, medicinal plants and herbs.
The Market
C2B sees many market opportunities for enzyme enhanced MAD, specifically in rural and agricultural areas. Worldwide there are over 20,000 large scale MADs with less than a thousand in the USA; there are over 40 million small scale MADs worldwide (Burns 2009). The Renewable Waste Intelligence (2013) places the number of digesters in the USA ~1700 (176 farm based, 1500 digesters at waste water treatment plants). Comparison of economics between MAD that uses just animal waste and those that use both animal and food waste strongly supports co-digestion as the more profitable (Wright and Inglis, 2003).
Essentially, food waste has three times the methane production capacity as bio-solids. The EPA estimates that in the USA over 30 million tons of food waste is sent to landfills each year. Degradation of food waste in landfills or in composting operations releases greenhouse gases that negatively contribute to global warming. One solution is to convert food waste into energy using MAD. The current MAD conversion efficient in the industry is ~70% (Vanguard Renewable, MA personal communication, 2015). A handful of states have made policy to ban food waste from landfills has increased interest in using MAD to convert organic material into energy. Based on USA policy, technology and process efficiency and economics we see a trend for better market acceptance of anaerobic digestion. However profit margins of MAD remain small and related to site specific variables. In fact in many cases the major revenue stream for MAD is not the sale of electricity to a utility but from tipping fees. To increase the acceptance of MAD in the USA better economic returns are required. One solution to increasing MAD economic returns is to produce more methane by physically, chemically or enzymatically pretreating feed stocks (Parawira, 2012).>