Food factories, supermarkets, restaurants, convenience stores, and other food-related businesses that are obliged to reduce emissions and recycle waste are about to start building systems in earnest in preparation for the April 2049 enforcement of the "Law Concerning the Promotion of Recycling and Utilization of Food Waste" (Food Recycling Law).

Food factories, supermarkets, restaurants, convenience stores, and other food-related businesses that are obliged to reduce emissions and recycle waste are about to start building systems in earnest in preparation for the April 2049 enforcement of the "Law Concerning the Promotion of Recycling and Utilization of Food Waste" (Food Recycling Law).
As for recycling, at present, the main methods are likely to be fertilizers and feedstuffs.
However, there are several obstacles in these methods before an appropriate recycling system can be established, such as securing a place for fertilizer or feed, maintaining the quality of the reused product, and securing a place to use and sell the product.
In particular, quality is a major issue, and this leads to difficulties in securing outlets, increasing processing costs, and commercialization.
With the implementation of the Food Waste Recycling Law, these issues are expected to become even more pronounced as the oversupply of fertilizers and feeds is expected to increase if efforts in various regions accelerate.
In response, biogas power generation, which converts food waste into electricity and heat that anyone can use, is beginning to attract attention as an alternative reuse method to fertilizer and feed conversion.
In 2000, Ekisie Corporation completed a unique system that efficiently collects food waste using a radio frequency, converts it into gas, and generates electricity using fuel cells over a period of six years, and has begun full-scale marketing activities.
■Satellites are installed onsite to gasify and generate electricity in bulk.
The company was established in 1994, and its president, Hiroo Fujiwara, formerly worked in the environmental measures department of a major supermarket before leaving his job to start his own company to develop a food waste treatment system.
The "Food Waste Gasification and Electricity Generation System GETS" was developed and completed after receiving certification and assistance from the New Energy Development Support Program, the Industrial Structure Improvement Support Program, and the New Industry Creation R&D Subsidy Program.
The "Food Waste Gasification and Power Generation System" developed and launched by the company consists of two processes: food waste collection and gasification and power generation.
In the food waste collection process, a "satellite," a container-type facility for storing and liquefying food waste, is installed at each supermarket or food factory.
This fully enclosed facility crushes and liquefies the food waste, reducing its volume by one-third.
This is then collected by a hose.
The satellite has a storage capacity of 25 tons and measures 2,440 mm (W) x 2,990 mm (D) x 2,590 mm (H).
Because it is a container type, no special construction work is required, and relocation or change of installation location can be easily performed.
In addition, the closed type prevents odors from leaking outside, and users only need to throw in food scraps, eliminating the need for complicated management.
Processing capacity ranges from 1 to 80 tons per day, and a variety of satellites are available.
We have also developed a high-pressure crushing and sorting satellite that automatically separates garbage containing a mixture of disposable chopsticks, toothpicks, plastic bags, and paper into food scraps and combustible garbage.
In case the satellite is installed far from the site where a lot of food waste is generated, we have also developed a food waste feeder that connects the satellite to a hose, which can be attached as an option.
The food scraps are immediately transported to the satellite by pneumatic conveyance, which not only reduces the time and labor required for transport, but also suppresses the generation of foul odors at the site.
The liquefied material is thus liquefied at each satellite and transported to the power generation center when a certain amount is stored.
The gasification and power generation process consists of a biogasification facility, a wastewater treatment facility, and fuel cells.
First, liquefied food waste is stored in a storage tank, where a special catalyst is used to generate biogas with methane as its main component.
After desulfurization, hydrogen is extracted by a reformer.
This is then reacted with oxygen from the air to produce electricity and heat energy.
Wastewater discharged from the biogasification facility can be re-gasified by a bioreactor.
For fuel cells, we have partnered with Toshiba (manufactured by the ONS Group, U.S.A.).
In the gasification power generation process, 20 tons/day of liquefied food waste (80% moisture content) yields approximately 4,800 kW of electricity per day (enough for about 50 average households) and 17,000(,(X)MJ of heat per day (enough for about 500~ household unit bath use).
Some of this energy is consumed internally, but much of it is used in various facilities.
The system also generates about 1.8 tons of dehydrated cake and 16 tons of treated water, but the pure water from the fuel cell can be used as mineral water through a mineralizer.
Compared to fertilizer and feed, it is easier to plan the use of the water and there is less difficulty in securing an outlet," said Yoshida.
IT enables the construction of a wide-area collection system.
Another major feature of GETS is a remote monitoring and command system using an industrial (REDICON system).
This makes it much easier to construct a wide-area collection system when a chain of supermarkets or a local government tries to form a cooperative.
Each satellite is equipped with a microcomputer and communication device that monitors and controls tank storage conditions and other malfunctions.
Notification is made via a bucket communication network, telephone line, leased line, or ISDN line.
This enables efficient scheduling of collection trucks while monitoring tank storage conditions, history management of how much and when the tanks were filled, and in the event of a breakdown, the breakdown location can be immediately identified at the center, so there is no need to worry about these problems at the site where the satellite is installed. The center can immediately identify the location of the malfunction in the event of a breakdown.
At the same time, it is also advantageous to be able to prepare reports (invoices, etc.) on the amount of waste collected, taking manifests into consideration.
Satellites can also be equipped with a recognition device as an option.
By issuing IDs, it is possible to check and manage who has put in the garbage.
Also, even if the satellite is located in a place where anyone can enter, by making it so that food scraps cannot be thrown in unless an ID is entered, we can prevent illegal throw-ins," says Yoshida.
This system was developed when the company delivered a food waste treatment system to a prison.
However, it is expected to prove highly effective in the search for an efficient batch processing system that connects multiple generating sites and jointly handles the processing.
The company packages and sells a series of these systems.
The company does not engage in management, but only in manufacturing and selling the systems and equipment.
The processing capacity at the point of gasification power generation process is 20 tons/B type, and the pricing is about 1.2 to 1.3 billion yen including satellite, power generation plant, and management system.
We are considering applying the system to food factories, industrial parks, hotel chains, theme parks, shopping centers, shopping associations, road service areas, as well as municipalities, airports, and housing complexes.
The form of operation is left to the client, but we are planning to operate private facilities, municipal facilities, PF1, third sector, and union style, and we are proposing to take the company public except for the maintenance form.
The construction of 1,250 power generation centers across the country internally is expected within a year.
At a recent information session, inquiries were immediately received from food factories, and the first systems are scheduled to be delivered around spring 2001.