Food Waste to Energy in West Lafayette Feasibility Study
West Lafayette has been utilizing the organic digester at its wastewater treatment plant to process the food waste derived from the Purdue dining courts into energy since 2009. In recent efforts to expand the intake of food waste to the digester, the West Lafayette Go Greener Commission and Purdue University Student Sustainability Council started two food waste collection programs: 1) where residents of Tippecanoe County are now able to bring their food waste to the former recycling center on River Road, and 2) where food waste is collected from fraternity and sorority houses. That food waste is then transported and processed at the wastewater treatment plant. Though the food waste stream has been steady and abundant, outdated infrastructure and a lack of funding have prevented the program from continued expansion to curb side collection and partnerships with local school corporations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has halted collection from fraternity and sorority houses, but food waste is still collected at the drop-off location. Last year’s senior design team analyzed scientific data and compares different food waste treatment methods, particularly collecting and sending food waste to an anaerobic digestor for energy recovery versus sending to landfill. The team conducted a cost-analysis to quantify potential long-term cost and energy savings as a result of increasing the volume of food waste collected to create a financial incentive for future creation of additional drop-off locations. Within the scope of this project, food waste is defined as compostable components of food items that are not consumed by the consumers once they leave the producer’s or distributor’s facilities. The goal of this project is to evaluate the actual effectiveness of the program versus the theoretical potential for the program.