Anaergia to provide PepsiCo with waste-to-biogas solution in South Africa

Anaergia has secured a contract to provide its technologies, engineering and process design for a new facility that will convert food processing waste into renewable energy at PepsiCo’s Simba Chips plant in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The new facility will allow this food processing operation to reduce its emissions and manage waste sustainably, reduce operating costs and enhance resilience by generating carbon-negative energy to help PepsiCo achieve its net-zero emissions goals, according to Anaergia.
Construction on the new facility began in January.
Anaergia added it is supplying its proprietary high solids anaerobic digestion technologies, and partnering with Tecroveer, a South African wastewater engineering company, which is providing project execution and power generation technology.
The facility will convert up to 11,500 metric tons of food scraps, fryer waste and wastewater sludge into 800 kilowatts of renewable electricity each year.
The facility will also provide natural fertiliser for PepsiCo’s agriculture division.
Anaergia said this unique facility will be a landmark reference for Africa, as it diverts waste from landfill disposal, maximises energy value from both waste and wastewater sludge, and converts digestate into fertiliser.
Anaergia has already sold a similar system to one of PepsiCo’s facilities in Portugal.
“Leveraging synergies between the waste and the wastewater from food production maximises energy generation and avoids methane emissions into the atmosphere, a major clause of climate change. This is achieved when we use the waste to make renewable energy,” said Andrew Benedek, chairman and CEO of Anaergia.
“One of the most hopeful signs in the battle against climate change is the desire of leading multinationals like PepsiCo to voluntarily invest in the optimisation and decarbonisation of their facilities, and Anaergia is proud to be able to support PepsiCo’s efforts with our unique technologies that maximise the renewable energy produced from the solid and liquid waste,” he continued.