Anaergia approved for food-waste-to-fuel technologies

Anaergia announced it has been approved for a non-repayable contribution from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada of up to $1.7-million (€1.6m). The development was highlighted by Canada's minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau, during a ceremony at Anaergia's global headquarters in Ontario on 2 March.
The approved project is part of an additional investment of over $24.1 million (€22.6m) under Canada's federal Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program to support the adoption of clean technologies in Ontario.
Anaergia said the ACT – Research and Innovation Stream funding will enable it to advance technologies for processing source separated organics (SSO) - the food scraps and other green waste that are gathered from households and businesses in green bin collection programmes.
Diverting SSO prevents the methane emissions that occur when this waste breaks down in landfills and allows it to be converted to renewable fuel via anaerobic digestion.
The waste can be combined with agricultural waste at farms to enable more farmers to create renewable energy.
Because many farms in Canada do not by themselves produce enough waste for anaerobic digestion, the addition of processed SSO would create enough material to allow for anaerobic digestion on site, according to Anaergia.
“Our goal is to help Canadian producers innovate and adopt clean technologies,” said the Marie-Claude Bibeau. “This new Agricultural Clean Technology Program investment aims to reduce the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions and leverage technology to be more resilient to climate change.”
“This ACT funding will support the technologies that transform waste into carbon-negative renewable fuel,” said Andrew Benedek, chairman and CEO of Anaergia. “These technologies are crucial for reducing emissions of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. We are grateful that the government of Canada is supporting these solutions and Anaergia’s mission to accelerate the world’s clean energy transition.”