| VIDEO |
 * Purdue transports five tons of food waste per week to West Lafayette Wastewater plant to generate methane to power plant. (1 minute 1 second) |
September 24, 2009
Purdue helps power treatment plant with food scraps
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
Food scraps from more than 100,000 meals are ground each week into five tons of a cole slaw-like pulp, also called yack. The pulp is trucked to the West Lafayette Wastewater Treatment Plant where an anaerobic digestor breaks it into methane to power two electric generators.
When Purdue was investigating this plan, the nearest such operation was in San Francisco.
"We couldn't find anyone in the Midwest doing what we are doing," said Joel Zarate, Purdue refuse recycling coordinator. "It's a leading model in sustainability and generates far more benefits than composting."
Producing methane from waste material saves West Lafayette $30,000 in electrical costs per year. Providing the pulp saves Purdue more than $10,000 in transportation costs and landfill fees per year. The low-odor sludge is stored and eventually applied to farm fields as an environmentally friendly fertilizer.
West Lafayette is considering adding a grinder at the plant that will allow it to take more food waste from Purdue and other locations, including courser materials like biodegradable dinner ware and banana peels. Purdue is examining its food preparation procedures for ways to process prep waste such as potato peels and celery leaves into the yack.
West Lafayette gave tours of the plant on Tuesday (Sept. 22) as part of Purdue Green Week 2009.
Writer: Jim Schenke, 765-494-6262, jschenke@purdue.edu
Sources: Joel Zarate, 765-494-0194, jazarate@purdue.edu
Terry Cegielski, Purdue University Residences assistant director of grounds and sustainability, 765-494-1000, tecegiels@purdue.edu
David Henderson, director West Lafayette Wasterwater Treatment Plant, 765-775-5145, dhenderson@westlafayette.in.gov
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
PHOTO CAPTION:
Purdue University transports five tons of pulverized food scraps to the West Lafayette Wastewater Treatment plant each week where an anaerobic digestor extracts methane that helps power the plant. (Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)
A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2009/greenweek-yack.jpg
To the News Service home page