Allan Gerlat, News Editor

January 29, 2014

1 Min Read
California Authority Commissions Food Waste to Energy Project

The Encina Wastewater Authority (EWA) in Carlsbad, Calif., has commissioned a facility to recycle waste cooking oil and other food wastes and convert them to energy.

The EWA awarded a contract to J.R. Filanc Construction and forged a partnership with Irving, Texas-based Liquid Environmental Solutions to build an Alternative Fuel Receiving Facility, according to a news release. Construction of the facility will begin in the first quarter, and completion is expected six months later.

The project will deliver fats, oils and grease, liquefied food waste and other higher-strength digestible organic substrate to the EWA’s Water Pollution Control Facility. The waste will be anaerobically digested to yield additional biogas fuel to supplement current unused digestion capacity.

Liquid Environmental will deliver the fuel.

EWA anticipates the project will pay for itself during the first four years of operation. 

EWA currently produces nearly 80 percent of its 2.2-megawatt annual electricity demand from biogas that is created during the wastewater treatment process.

About the Author(s)

Allan Gerlat

News Editor, Waste360

Allan Gerlat joined the Waste360 staff in September 2011 as news editor. He was the editor of Waste & Recycling News for the first 16 years of its history, and under his guidance the publication won 27 national and regional awards.

Before Waste & Recycling News, Allan worked at another Crain Communications publication, Rubber & Plastics News, which covers rubber product manufacturing. He began with the publication as associate editor and eventually became managing editor, a position he held for nine years.

Allan is a graduate of Ohio University, where he earned a BS in journalism. He is based in Sagamore Hills, in northeast Ohio.

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