Renewi’s waste-to-biogas facility hits ‘full service’

Waste-to-product specialist Renewi has reached full service on its organic biofuels contract with the City of Surrey, Canada, according to a company announcement.

The 14,323 square metre facility converts residential and commercial organic waste into biogas, which will be used to fuel the city’s natural gas powered waste collection vehicles and operations service vehicles, as well as the district heating system.

According to Renewi, the facility will process more than 115,000 tonnes of waste a year, producing approximately 120,000GJ of biogas to be used as vehicle fuel. The company claims that it is one of the largest organic biofuels infrastructure facilities in North America.

The facility will contribute towards the City of Surrey and the Vancouver Metro area’s 80% waste diversion target for 2020. In addition the by-product of the facility, class-A organic compost, will be available for use in local agriculture and landscaping projects.

“The facility is performing well and we are now operating Canada’s first closed-loop and fully integrated organics waste management system, with our ‘waste no more’ vision at its heart,” said James Priestly, managing director of Renewi’s Municipal Division.

“Achieving full service commencement for this project is a key part of our recovery plan to stabilise and de-risk the Municipal Division so I am pleased that we are also able to deliver another milestone in that plan.”

The biofuel facility was developed as a Public-Private Partnership (P3). The Government of Canada approved the City of Surrey’s application to the P3 Canada Fund, where they will contribute up to 25% (to a maximum of $16.9 million) of the capital cost of the future biofuel facility.