News
Biomethane, the second life of food waste
IES Biogas dedicates a division to the Food Industry
The by-products of the food industry, coming mainly from the processing of raw materials with a high degree of biodegradability, are today an incredible opportunity to produce energy and promote circular and sustainable economies.
The most important by-products of the food industry are: sludge from meat and fish processing, dairy and confectionery by-products, fruit and vegetable residues, cereals and tubers. Altogether they are a significant percentage of the waste produced: their valorisation and transformation into biomethane represents, for the food industry, one of the technological solutions that can best reconcile environmental and economic sustainability.
IES Biogas, which has been building biogas and biomethane plants internationally for over 12 years (and has been part of Snam since 2018), has dedicated an entire division to the sector: IES Food Industry.
“Today we are witnessing – explains the CEO, Marco Mazzero – a greater interest of Food & Beverage industry towards the valorisation of waste, expired and returns. The aim is the production of biomethane, encouraged in Italy for its use in the transport sector. Producing companies can, therefore, directly introduce it into the national network or use it as a green biofuel. In this way is possible use it for product handling fleets, thus reducing the carbon footprint, i.e. the impact of activities on the global climate in terms of the amount of CO2 that processes generate throughout the entire product life cycle”.
Not only: the residues that remain after the fermentation process are also an excellent matrix for the production of natural fertilizer, to be used both in traditional and organic farming (because they are rich in organic matter and nutrients). “In this way,” Mazzero concludes, “the company preserves and enhances the cycles of nature, reconciling them with those of production, according to the principle of economic and environmental circularity: not only from the point of view of energy, but also of the rational use and reuse of resources during all phases of the production cycle.
In photo: the AF Bioenergie construction site
