Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the energy industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked food waste-to-energy solutions.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top Food Waste-to-Energy Solutions out of 146
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2.093.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 146 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 startups that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 141 food waste-to-energy solutions, get in touch.
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Avris Environment Technologies produces Biogas
Food leftovers, stale food, and a large amount of kitchen waste like vegetable peels, spoiled food ingredients are common in hotels and restaurants. Therefore, to avoid the dumping of this food waste in landfills, startups are offering on-site food waste treatment solutions to convert the waste into biogas. Homes and restaurants then use this biogas for cooking, further driving sustainability.
Avris Environment Technologies provides an on-site food waste treatment system, Chugg, for hotels, restaurants, kitchens, apartment complexes, and institutions. The conversion process involves crushing the food waste and feeding it to the system, which uses anaerobic digestion. Then, it generates biogas and stores it at low pressure for use in cooking, replacing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Additionally, the byproduct, digested manure, is also used as a natural fertilizer.
Waste2 Environmental Systems offers an Anaerobic Digester
Disposal of food waste is costly for food manufacturers, processors, and retailers. Moreover, besides leading to greenhouse gas emissions, discarding food waste is also a waste of resources that could be used to generate value. Therefore, to tackle this issue, startups are providing converters that upcycle food waste to energy. Startups utilize technologies like anaerobic digestion, that do not lead to a net increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, thus further enabling sustainability.
British startup Waste2 Environmental Systems offers compactAD, a food waste to energy converter. The converter uses anaerobic digestion to process large volumes of food waste. Additionally, its i-FDR Flexidry depackaging system separates the packaging from organic food waste. The startup’s solutions enable use cases for food manufacturers, processors, growers, and retailers.
TRYON Environnement deploys Composting & Methanization Solutions
Unlike plastic, food waste is biodegradable, which makes it easier to recycle or upcycle this waste biologically. While incineration produces electricity from food waste, it also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As a result, startups are deploying natural methods like composting and methanization, which would capture this carbon dioxide and convert it into renewable energy.
TRYON Environnement is a French startup that converts food waste and other bio-waste into renewable energy through composting and methanization. The startup’s composting platform degrades the waste material to make compost and releases carbon dioxide. It captures the carbon dioxide for use as renewable energy. The methanization unit digests matter by anaerobic digestion in sealed tanks, to produce green natural gas and organic fertilizer.
BIO2CHP enables Gasification
While many waste-to-energy companies use anaerobic digestion, it is not very efficient when it comes to converting carbon in biomass to biogas. It takes a long time to begin the process as the growth of the methane-producing organisms is slow. As a result, startups are utilizing alternative technologies like gasification, which convert larger proportions of carbon much faster, followed by combined heat and power. The latter captures and utilizes the heat which otherwise would have been wasted and converts it into electricity.
BIO2CHP is a Greek startup that utilizes raw residual biomass feedstock, especially fruit waste, for on-site and small-scale electricity production. The biomass gasification unit consists of a compact bubbling fluidized bed gasifier coupled with a hot gas filtration system and a gas engine-based combined heat and power generator. These are operated together through an automated control system.
Capricorn Power advances Pyrolysis
Anaerobic digestion converts food waste to energy but it requires a lot of fresh water in the process. However, pyrolysis, which involves the thermal decomposition of waste at high temperatures, generates energy without water or chemicals. Thus, creating value out of waste while also saving water. Hence, startups are utilizing pyrolysis technology to convert biowaste like food waste into electricity.
Australian startup Capricorn Power offers a bioenergy power station. Barton Engine, the startup’s system combines a heat engine with a biochar machine. Using pyrolysis, it converts biowaste such as food waste into heat and electricity. It does not use water or chemicals and produces zero-emission energy. The leftover biochar byproduct finds applications in the agricultural sector.
Discover more Energy Startups
Energy startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on biofuels, anaerobic digestion, and waste heat recovery. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing the energy industry, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more energy technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download our free Energy Innovation Report to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
