Anaergia’s Rialto Bioenergy Facility converts biosolids from several SoCal wastewater agencies into clean energy, and class A fertilizer
Anaergia announced that its Rialto Bioenergy Facility in Rialto, California, received the Distinction Award for Wastewater Project of the Year at the Global Water Awards 2022, one of the water industry’s most prominent international awards programs. The award was presented at a ceremony in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday evening.
The Rialto Bioenergy Facility is a $185 million project built, owned, and operated by Anaergia. It is one of North America’s largest organics processing facilities, with the capacity to convert up to 1,000 tons per day of wastewater biosolids and landfill-diverted, organic waste into up to 985,000 MMBtu of renewable natural gas and agricultural fertilizer.
By reducing the landfilling of organic waste and producing a carbon-negative fuel, the facility’s net carbon dioxide emissions reduction is approximately 220,000 metric tons annually—equivalent to taking 47,500 cars off the road.
“We are very proud that Rialto Bioenergy Facility, demonstrating Anaergia’s world-leading capability to deliver sustainable infrastructure of the 21st century, and helping utilities convert biosolids into resources,” said Andrew Benedek, Anaergia’s Chairman and CEO. “Far too much of the world’s wastewater sludge, food scraps and other organic waste is allowed to rot in landfills. By converting organic waste to a carbon-negative renewable fuel and high-quality fertilizer, we are not only reducing planet-warming methane emissions, we are also replacing fossil fuels with a renewable fuel and improving the health of the earth’s soil.”
Rialto Bioenergy Facility is unique in that it co-locates wastewater biosolids processing with organic waste processing. The facility digests organic waste that was extracted from mixed municipal solid waste using Anaergia’s proprietary OREX™ technology and produces renewable natural gas (RNG) using the Company’s advanced anaerobic digestors, which are up to three times more efficient than conventional digestion technology.
It also converts Class B biosolids into high-quality Class A fertilizer through drying and will soon complete the addition of Anaergia’s PyroSys™ pyrolysis technology to produce NutriChar™ biochar fertilizer. PyroSys™ is a unique thermal technology that converts Class B biosolids into Class A fertilizer that is free from PFAS and other contaminants of concern.
With California law now requiring the diversion of 75% of organic wastes from landfills by 2025, the plant will serve as a replicable reference for years to come as cities and utilities work to achieve carbon neutrality goals.
Anaergia was created to eliminate a major source of greenhouse gases by cost effectively turning organic waste into renewable natural gas (“RNG”), fertilizer and water, using proprietary technologies. With a proven track record from delivering world-leading projects on four continents, Anaergia is uniquely positioned to provide end-to-end solutions for extracting organics from waste, implementing high efficiency anaerobic digestion, upgrading biogas, producing fertilizer and cleaning water.
Our customers are in the municipal solid waste, municipal wastewater, agriculture, and food processing industries. In each of these markets Anaergia has built many successful plants including some of the largest in the world. Anaergia owns and operates some of the plants it builds, and it also operates plants that are owned by its customers.
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