Biogas Waste-to-Energy Plant Proposed for Jessup

by Lorraine Mirabella (Baltimore Sun) An Italian company that operates waste-to-energy plants around the world plans to build its first U.S. facility in Jessup near dozens of food distribution businesses that could supply its fuel.

BTS Biogas established its North American headquarters in Columbia last fall and now hopes to break ground on a plant by the end of the year at the Maryland Food Center, a 400-acre area with about 50 produce and seafood merchants, food processors and distributors and other businesses.

BTS recycles organic waste and agricultural and food industry byproducts into electricity, thermal energy for heating and cooling, methane gas and organic fertilizers.

“It’s taking organic material that they were going to throw away … and putting it in a plant and making energy and fertilizer,” said Shawn Kreloff, executive director and CEO of the Americas for BTS.

Businesses that otherwise would pay to ship waste to a landfill would pay a tipping fee to have it sent to the biogas plant and get discounts based on the cost of materials to be recycled. Businesses also would get a break on the energy supplied by the plant, said Donald J. Darnall, executive director of the Maryland Food Center Authority, the center’s developer.

“One of the biggest expenses that we deal with in the food industry is organic waste,” Darnall said. “There hasn't been a whole lot of success [with] composting facilities to manage the waste we generate. We end up having to put it in the waste disposal system.” READ MORE