Food Waste to Energy

Jim Newton, P.E., DEE

Course Outline

This two hour course provides valuable information for those individuals who participate in the operations and management of WRRFs, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), governmental agencies and any other individuals with an interest in protecting the planet and being a better world citizen.  Completion of this course will provide the student the necessary information and testing to meet the continuing education requirements in order to renew their licenses.  It was designed by an instructor who has developed and implemented numerous similar training courses. 

This course requires the completion of a multiple-choice quiz at its conclusion in order to obtain the necessary certification.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Understand what is meant by co-digestion;
• Understand how to manage waste more sustainably;
• Understand generating renewable energy;
• Understand how to ensure affordable rates;
• Understand how to celebrate successes using 6 WRRF examples;
• Understand total MSW percentages;
• Understand the carbon footprint of the various food waste options compare;
• Understand the types of food waste co-digested;
• Understand how much food waste is co-digested;
• Understand when food waste is co-digested;
• Understand how food waste is delivered;
• Understand how much food waste is stored;
• Understand how is food waste processed;
• Understand how much biogas is generated;
• Understand how is the biogas used;
• Understand how much biosolids are produced from co-digestion;
• Understand how is the biosolids managed;
• Understand how did the WRRFs invest in co-digestion;
• Understand the costs, savings and revenue for food waste to energy; and
• Understand some general SOPs for food waste to energy.

Intended Audience

The intended audience for this course is any professional who is involved in the operation and management of WRRFs, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), governmental agencies and any other individual with an interest in protecting the planet and being a better world citizen.

Benefit to Attendees

Attendees of this course will understand the basic concepts of turing food waste into useable, renewable energy.

Course Introduction

To protect human health and the environment, communities must have adequate infrastructure to handle waste, critically the waste that is thrown away.  Modern solid waste management approaches have remedied many of the historically aesthetic, ecological and public health problems.  But they have engendered systems that contribute crises, such as climate change.

By diverting energy rich food waste from landfills to existing or proposed anaerobic digesters at Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs), co-digestion can help communities manage wastes more sustainably, generate renewable energy and continue to provide essential services at affordable rates. 

Course Content

In this course, you are required to study the US EPA publication, “Food Waste to Energy: How Six Water resource recovery Facilities are Boosting Biogas Production and the Bottom Line” provided as a pdf document as a part of this course.  This document describes the steps utilities to develop and implement greenhouse gas reduction programs by converting food waste to energy.

Food Waste to Energy: How Six Water resource recovery Facilities are Boosting Biogas Production and the Bottom Line

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Course Summary

This course discusses basic food waste to energy concepts.

Related Links

For additional information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

U.S Environmental Protection Agency

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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