Anaergia begins construction of North America’s largest WTE facility

Anaergia Inc., Ontario, Canada, announced the start of construction at its Rialto Bioenergy Facility (RBF) Dec. 10 in Rialto, California.

According to the company, the RBF will help address two pressing waste management issues in Southern California: food waste diversion from landfills and biosolids management. The RBF will convert 700 tons per day of food waste and 300 tons per day of biosolids into renewable natural gas, renewable electricity, and Class A organic fertilizer. When construction is completed in 2020, it will be the largest food waste diversion and energy recovery facility in North America.

The Rialto Bioenergy Facility will provide the Southern California region with a more efficient, local solution for the diversion of 300,000 tons of organic waste per year. Using Anaergia’s advanced anaerobic digestion technology to extract energy from the organic material, this facility will produce the equivalent of 13 megawatts of clean energy per year. The net carbon dioxide emissions reduction will be approximately 220,000 metric tons annually, which is the equivalent of taking 47,500 cars off the road, the company says.

Anaergia is building the RBF in collaboration with Waste Management, Houston; Republic Services, Phoenix; Southern California Edison, Rosemead, California; Anaheim Public Utility, Anaheim, California; Southwest Gas Utility; City of Rialto; the Sanitation Bureau of the City of Los Angeles; and the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County and Orange County. The RBF is co-funded by the California Energy Commission, U.S. Department of Energy, CalRecycle, State of California and significant private investment.

“We are proud to be working with industry leaders in the solid waste, wastewater and renewable energy industries to build one of the largest organics recycling facilities in the world serving the Southern California region. Our new plant will demonstrate a truly sustainable and replicable way to meet the state’s organics diversion and recycling needs,” Anaergia CEO Andrew Benedek says.