An Integrated Systems Model for Sustainably Managing Dairy and Food Wastes

New York is the third largest dairy state in the U.S and it generates over 22 million tons of dairy and food wastes per year. Current waste management practices involve storage of untreated wastes in landfills and lagoons which pose significant environmental risks to river basins and lakes due to runoff and climate impacts resulting from fugitive methane emissions. Disposal and treatment of these wastes is typically viewed as a financial burden, but with the right combination of process technologies, it can become a resource for energy and nutrient recovery. The primary goal of this project is to evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of deploying a system of centralized biorefineries using a combination of Anaerobic Digestion (AD), Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) and Biomethanation Power-to-gas (PtG) systems to process agricultural and food wastes. This project will specifically focus on spatial optimization and techno-economic modeling of these processes to develop a user-friendly assessment tool to highlight the potential of combining energy, dairy and food waste management systems to maximize resource recovery, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and lowering local environmental impacts within a circular economy, all while ensuring cost-cutting and energy efficiency targets.