The Fairview Swiss Cheese Plant soon will be partially powered with biogas made from its own waste products.
The plant, owned by John Koller & Son Inc. broke ground on the renewable energy project, which converts food waste into gas, said Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff. The $2.2 million project involves constructing an anaerobic digester that will use cheese whey from the plant and cone batter waste from the Joy Cone Co. to make 40 million cubic feet of biogas annually — the equivalent of 28 million cubic feet of natural gas.
“The Fairview Swiss Cheese Plant is just one more exciting example of how Pennsylvanians are developing ways to tap into a growing renewable energy market,” said Wolff during the ceremony. “This project will not only save the company money on energy bills, it will help decrease overall dependency on foreign oil.”
Wolff said this renewable energy project falls in line with Governor Edward G. Rendell’s Energy Independence Strategy, which is designed to cut the commonwealth’s reliance on imported oil and support development of homegrown energy sources.
The biogas will be used in a boiler to produce steam and electricity for processing milk into cheese that in turn will offset the purchase of fuel oil and electricity produced from fossil fuels. The wastewater from the digester will flow to a treatment facility where the solids will be removed and clean water discharged.
3 Comments on “Pa. Cheese Plant Powered by Biogas”
Renewable energy is the future, why depend on fossil fuels when we can go renewable..*`
Renewable energy is the future, why depend on fossil fuels when we can go renewable..*`
Renewable energy is the future, why depend on fossil fuels when we can go renewable..*`