Several attendees of the Renewable Energy from Waste (REW) Conference in Orlando, Florida, received a tour of Harvest Power Central Florida Energy Garden, an innovative anaerobic digestion facility located on Disney-owned property. The facility is one of several owned and operated by Waltham, Massachusetts-based Harvest Power.

Harvest Power is managing the food waste and fats oils and grease (FOGs) separated from Disney World and other hotels, produce growers and food processors in the and codigesting it with the biosolids from the adjacent Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID)’s wastewater treatment plant through anaerobic digestion (AD).

RCID worked with Harvest Power to redesign its facility to produce energy from organics. The facility opened in November 2013.

Attendees toured the three-acre facility and saw where local haulers, including Phoenix-based Republic Services, deliver organic waste to the facility. The trucks dump the organics into a receiving pit. The material then goes through depackaging equipment to remove plastics and metals.

Once the organics are depackaged, they are pumped into a tank where the food, biosolids and FOGs are all mixed together. Material remains in the tanks for approximately 22 days where it breaks down and produces biogas. The biogas is siphoned out of the tanks and housed in a dome-shaped tank where it runs two generators producing a combined 3.2 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The facility has the capacity to process 130,000 tons of material annually.

Attendees were broken up into small groups for the tours led by Harvest Power’s Brandon Moffatt, and Mark Grenier. Thomas Gratz, business development manager, Layne, provided refreshments and discussed his company’s role of building the facility with those on the tour.

A session on the project took place during the last day of the REW Conference, titled, “Part of the Magic - How an Anaerobic Digestion Public-Private Partnership is Powering Orlando's Tourist Attractions” will include the major contributors to making the AD project possible.

Moderated by Ljupka Arsova, a consultant with Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc., Fairfax, Virginia, the panel will feature Brandon Moffatt, senior vice president of energy, Harvest Power; Ted McKim, principal civil engineer, Reedy Creek Energy Services; and Jamie Bohan, senior director, recycling & alternative technology development, Republic Services.

The 2015 REW Conference was Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, Florida. Details on the 2016 conference will be available at a future date at www.REWConference.com.