Project Description

A large fruit-juice-based beverage manufacturer built a water treatment facility in 2001 for processing waste products from its manufacturing processes. One of the main components of the waste is methane, a byproduct produced from processing sugar and other natural materials. The client was generating an average of 123,000 cubic feet of methane daily, with approximately 65% being flared off into the atmosphere as waste.

ThermalTech proposed a design to utilize the methane, reclaiming it as an energy source to be used in the manufacturing facility. Due to the high heat value of the byproduct, the reclaimed biogas replaced a significant portion of the natural gas needed for the plant’s steam generating boiler. Key elements of the design included the installation of a dryer and compressor in the treatment plant; underground piping for the transfer of cleaned and compressed biogas; and a customer boiler package for the boiler house.

The new reclamation project produces a natural gas cost saving of approximately $236K per year. At an installation cost of $750,000, this project has a payback period of less than three years. A substantial benefit of the design is the reuse of a natural byproduct of the manufacturing process, previously lost to flaring off.