Imperial College shows ADBA innovative waste management system

On the 7th June 2016, ADBA's CEO, Charlotte Morton and Market Analyst, Emma Thomas went to Imperial College, London to see the Rothenburg gmbh foodwaste management system in action. This innovative system which has been widely used in Germany for over 30 years in schools, hospitals, offices and many more locations as a way to manage food waste. The food waste management system offers the following features:

• Compliance with all EU and UK food waste regulations;
• Performance above BREEAM and LEED;
• Can be sized to the businesses needs;
• Offers an automated and integrated solution;
• Reduces food collection to every 21-42 days, resulting in reduced truck rolls, reduces costs and reduced vehicle emissions;
• No drainage connection is required;
• No water, chemicals ot biological agents are used;
• No restrictions on how much or what type of food can be processes;
• Enables cleaner recycling due to limited contamination;
• Improves biosecturity;
• Waste collected from this system and taken to AD facilities, accelerate biogas production and energy recovery;
• Uses carbon and UV air editing system to remove odur;
• Built in macerator to reduce volume of food waste.

As you can see, there are many features available there are many more which haven't been listed; which shows the versatility of the product.

Image above (L-R): Where food is put into the system, food waste bins, how food waste bins are emptied.

The system has been sized correctly for the campus and is situated at the back of one of the universities restaurants and to me, looked quite small but has reduced waste collection to once a week and will soon be reducing again to twice a week. We saw the system in action, where over 10 food waste containers were put into it with ease. With no moving parts (as the system is essential a vacuum which sucks the food in to the macerator, which is situated deep inside the container) the system is incredibly safe to use. 

Innovation like this and research into how the AD process is accelerated is key to the development of the AD sector, businesses and the UK. On the 6th – 7th July at the UK AD and Biogas event we're hosting the annual research and innovation (R&I) hub. To hear speakers across academia and business talk about a broad range of topics, register for free to attend the two days.