Kraft Foods has debuted a new system at their Lowville, N.Y. cheese plant that turns waste into energy. The system will save the plant between 30 and 35 percent of their current natural gas purchases per year.
The bio-methane system takes the waste product from the cheese plant and lets the bacterial breakdown of the waste create methane gas, which is then sent back to power the plant. The system was designed, built and operated for Kraft by Ecovation.
“We look at ways that can help us become stronger in our facility and anytime we can take the waste and convert it into something that actually is displacing something like natural gas in this case, that certainly is a good business thing and it’s great for the environment and it certainly has made a difference in our facility,” said plant manager Darin Zehr.
Kraft is implementing a new green initiative and the Lowville plant is one of two in New York State currently using the bio-methane system.