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The Green Era digester creates biogas and nutrient-rich fertilizer.
CHICAGO (WLS) — A unique climate replacement device is being used to divert thousands of pounds of food waste from landfills, as well as feed people and heat homes cleanly and sustainably.
The anaerobic digester is located in a former nine-acre landfill on Chicago’s South Side.
An anaerobic digester breaks down biological matter without oxygen. There are thousands across the country, but none compare to the one at the Green Era warehouse, located in a food desert in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
“What’s unique about our digester here is that we only waste food waste,” said co-founder and CEO Jason Feldman. “So it’s non-compliant, expired or infected food waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill. “
After years of manufacturing, Green Era’s anaerobic digester is now operational. And that creates two by-products: biogas and nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Trucks loaded with tons of food waste arrive daily, some still in their packaging. All this is thrown into a giant pit.
“It’s the mouth. It’s like chewing, spitting out the package and then swallowing these liquid food residues that pass through the intestines or through the pipes that lead to the digester,” Feldman explained. “This is almost precisely what happens in the abdomen of a cow we are raising here. “
This level of the abdomen or digestion is located outside the warehouse, in a large tank.
Erika Allen, executive director of Urban Growers Collective, Green Era’s spouse, worked with Feldman to make the digester a reality.
“[Liquid food waste] lives there for about 20 days. The tiny microorganisms eat them, just like our digestive formula does exactly the same thing,” Allen explained. “And after a while, digestion, food is digested and methane is released. and goes to the most sensitive part of the tank. It is extracted with a siphon, then it goes through a cleaning filtration, and then it is injected into the gas pipe. “
“We’re injecting this renewable energy into the local fuel grid, meaning the local People’s Gas fuel grid,” Feldman said. “So when you boil those noodles, the fuel that comes out may simply be a renewable, carbon-negative Green Age plant fuel rather than a fossil fuel. “
The other byproduct of the digester is a refined biological fertilizer called anaerobic digestate. It is sent to several external network gardens managed by more than 120 Urban Growers Collective interns and teens.
“We’re literally creating energy and then recirculating it to develop food and we’re doing it in a way that educates and creates a new industry ready for climate change,” Allen said.
Green Era announced the official launch of the digester as a groundbreaking rite in the fall.
In the meantime, they are racing to raise more to continue with the construction of a greenhouse and a school.
This story is part of our Climate Ready series, a collaboration between ABC News and ABC-owned television stations that aims to provide practical answers to help you and your family adapt to extreme weather times and current challenges. climate change.
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