Japan Partnership for Circular Economy

Japan Partnership for Circular Economy

casestudy

Anaerobic digestion technology to recover energy from kitchen refuse and industrial food waste

[Company / organization] Kajima Corporation

Description of technologies and business models

Various initiatives are underway to effectively utilize organic waste, such as kitchen refuse and industrial food waste, which are discharged during daily life.Turning the waste into feed and composting are one of these, but for those that are difficult to turn the waste into feed and compost, we are promoting the recovery and recycling of energy such as biogas, as well as waste heat. We have developed a proprietary anaerobic digestion technology, METAKLES, that recovers biogas from organic waste.

METAKLES decomposes and processes organic wastes such as kitchen refuse using a ”thermophilic down-flow anaerobic packed-bed reactor” that uses the methane fermentative bacteria. The generated biogas is recovered and used for electricity and heat.

We propose a new recycling facility using METAKLES in response to the desire of businesses to dispose of food waste safely and hygienically and also recover it as energy and recyclable resources.

Case Study

Shochu Distillery By-Products recycling facility (KIRISHIMA SHUZO Co., Ltd.)

The maximum amount of shochu distillery by-products received from the two factories is 1,200 tons/day, which is one of the largest in Japan. In addition to shochu distillery by-products, 10 tons of sweet potato residue generated in the shochu manufacturing process and 10 tons of washed rice wastewater used as diluting water for sweet potato residue can be treated at the same time.

In addition, the recycling facility is composed of a units of drying and feeding dehydrated cakes whose water content is about 85% after separation that are discharged from the existing anaerobic digestion facility.Biogas generated during the anaerobic digestion process is used as the dry heat source. The generated biogas is used not only as energy at the shochu plant, but also as power generation.

URLs introducing initiatives, etc.

https://www.kajima.co.jp/tech/g_warming/metakles/index.html