The reopening of the Cayuga Anaerobic Digester and Biogas Plant was celebrated Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting attended by more than 40 local and state officials and staff of operator Generate Upcycle.
In a news release, Generate Upcycle the digester recently completed a three-year project to produce renewable natural gas. It injected gas into the natural gas pipeline, or "hot commissioning," for the first time in August. The digester operator has invested nearly $30 million into reviving and upgrading it, including doubling its capacity for processing waste and generating renewable energy.
The digester uses biological processes to convert 90,000 tons of food waste a year into RNG and nitrogen-rich fertilizer used on more than 1,000 acres of local farmland, Generate Upcycle said. Food and beverages are removed from packaging and new technology sorts and bales cardboard, aluminum, plastic and metal for recycling.
The facility produces 195,000 mmBtus (1 million British thermal units) of RNG a year, Generate Upcycle said, which is enough to heat more than 3,500 homes. It also produces 20 million gallons of nutrient-rich organic soil amendment annually, which supports local farms by improving soil structure, water retention and nutrient uptake.聽
鈥淲e鈥檙e particularly excited about the Cayuga facility because it not only allows us to process organic waste into renewable natural gas, but we are also able to capture significant amounts of recyclable packaging materials," said Bill Caesar, president of Generate Upcycle, which owns and operates three anaerobic digestion sites in New York and a total of 12 across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
The digester opened in 2012 on County House Road, and in the following years faced challenges in its operation. It was also cited by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in 2019 for accepting wastes it was not authorized to accept, and paid a fine of $19,500.
