363,000 TPA Biogas & Recycling Facility Planned at Santa Barbara Landfill

A draft environmental impact report into a planned dry anaerobic digestion and recycling facility development at the Tajiguas Landfill site in Santa Barbara County, California has been published by the County of Santa Barbara’s Public Works Department, Resource Recovery and Waste Management Division (RRWMD). The RRWMD, the lead agency responsible for preparing the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), said that it will now hold a public hearing into the adequacy and completeness of the analysis presented in the document, as well as its proposed mitigating measures. The County of Santa Barbara has proposed to modify the operation of the Tajiguas Landfill to add the Tajiguas Resource Recovery Project that would process Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) from the communities currently served by the Tajiguas Landfill. The project would be sited at the 497 acres Tajiguas Landfill, which is itself located in a coastal canyon known as Cañada de la Pila, approximately 26 miles west of the City of Santa Barbara. According to the EIA, the project facilities would be located in the inland area of the landfill in the area of the existing developed operations deck, which currently houses the landfill administration facilities. During construction, landfill administration facilities would be temporarily relocated. The project would modify current waste management operations at the Landfill by adding a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) and dry fermentation Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Facility. Recycling facility The planned MRF would have a design capacity of up to 800 tons (725 tonnes) per day of MSW and would be expected to recover around 90,000 tons (81,000 tonnes) of recyclable material for resale and reuse each year. Additionally, as an optional project element, the Resource Recovery Project could include the infrastructure to process currently collected Commingled Source Separated Recyclables (CSSR). If this option were put in place it would expand the total capacity of the recycling facility by 40,000 tons (36,300 tonnes) to 290,000 tons (263,000 tonnes) per year. Anaerobic digestion If the plans for the facility go ahead, materials coming onto the site will be processed so as to recover recyclables such as metal, paper, glass, plastics and wood. Organic waste would be sent to the AD facility and the residual waste that remains would be disposed of at the existing landfill. The EIA explained that the AD Facility would be housed within an approximate 63,000 square foot (5850 square metre) building, along with an associated equipment to recover energy from the biogas produced. The AD facility would have a design capacity of up to 73,600 tons (66,800 tonnes) per year, made up of organics recovered from the MRF and/or brought to the project site as source separated organic waste made up of green waste and food waste. The document added that biogas from the AD facility would be used to power two 1537 hp combined heat and power engines used to drive generators that would each deliver 1 MW+ net electricity. The digestate would be treated on a 5 acre stretch of land at the site where it would be cured into a compost/soil amendment. The EIA said that up to 100,000 tons (91,000 tonnes) per year of residual waste from the MRF and residue from the AD Facility which is not suitable for composting would be landfilled. Residue ineligible for disposal in the landfill, such as hazardous waste or e31 waste, would be transported to an appropriate recycling or disposal facility. According to the RRWMD, ased on current waste disposal rates the Tajiguas Landfill may reach its permitted disposal capacity (23.3 million cubic yards) around 2026. However, with the additional diversion provided by the proposed project the permitted disposal capacity (which would not be modified as a part of the project) would not be expected to be reached until approximately year 2036, extending the landfill life by approximately 10 years. The EIA noted that the vendor selected by the Public Participants to design, construct, own, and operate the Resource Recovery Project is Mustang Renewable Power Ventures. Read More VIDEO: $80m Hog Waste to Biogas Plant Underway in Missouri Construction work has begun on an $80 million dollar farm waste to biogas project in Northern Missouri. The project will see the installation of impermeable synthetic covers on existing nutrient treatment lagoon, turning them into anaerobic digesters ISRI Backs Separated Recycling Collections & Hits Out at ‘Single Bin’ Solutions The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries has adopted a policy in favour of separating recyclables from waste prior to collection as opposed to commingling or one-bin collection. Two-Stage DVO Farm Waste Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Plant Nears Completion in California Chilton, Wisconsin based two stage anaerobic digestion specialist, DVO, has nearly completed installation and construction of a 1.4 million gallon dairy farm waste anaerobic digester in California.