Technical Report

Implementation of anaerobic digestion facilities in the food and beverage industry

January 2025

Executive Summary

Food and beverage production is based on the processing of agricultural biomass. For this reason, the by-products from the food and beverage industry can be very valuable feedstocks for anaerobic digestion. This report focuses on the integration of a biogas plant to the production facilities. In such scenarios either residues, wastes, by-products or wastewaters can be used as feedstock. It is important to pursue a cascading utilisation concept which prioritizes re-use and food/feed application of the by-products prior to energy utilisation. Biogas is an attractive option, since food and beverage production are energy intensive, and biogas is a multi-purpose energy carrier. The utilization of the renewable gas reduces the carbon footprint of the production process.

The report provides detailed feedstock characteristics and gives a guide to the food and beverage industry on how a biogas project should be pursued and which typical questions arise. As a practical report a variety of international examples of biogas plants that are integrated into the food and beverage industry are shown: meat industry, breweries, distilleries and potato processing sites. Typical plant details are given such as: location and operating company, investment, biogas production, energy utilisation and reactor size and type.