UK supermarket will be the first in the world to disconnect from the grid using electricity generated from its own rotten food.
Process of Going from Food Waste to Power Generation
The process is quite straightforward. At the end of each day, the food waste products which cannot be donated will be shipped off to an anaerobic digester about one mile away. The digester produces biogas which can provide fuel to generate electricity. That electricity will be connected via a one-mile long power line to power the store. Once the process is completed and linked to the store, the supermarket (Sainsbury) will sever its link to the grid. Thus it will use its own food waste to power its store.
Sainsbury already creates waste food to power by shipping its waste food to the digester to generate electricity, but that power is currently sold back to the grid. It’s just a matter now of tying that power generation back to the store.
It is estimated, by one study, that there is enough cow manure generated in the U.S. that if it were to be collected and put into anaerobic digesters to produce biogas, there could be enough electricity generated to power over 1 million homes.
The complete story along with some interesting pictorials can be accessed on the ExtremeTech website.
About the Author: Lauren Boitel
