CRRA2019

Managing Director

Dr. Yaniv Scherson is the Managing Director for the western U.S. region for Anaergia. Yaniv is based in Carlsbad California where he leads Anaergia’s projects integrating organics recycling from solid waste with anaerobic digestion and wastewater for production of renewable power and renewable natural gas. Yaniv leads Anaergia’s turnkey system offering and supports Anaergia’s Design, Build, Own, Operate, and Finance arm. He is a licensed professional engineer in California and holds Ph.D. and Master degrees from Stanford University.”

Organics Recycling and Renewable Energy Generation from Mixed Solid Waste

California has implemented among the most broad and stringent regulatory requirements for diversion of organic waste from landfill and beneficial recycling as fertilizer and energy. Source separation has been considered a primary method for recovering organics. However, high cost of collection and outreach, coupled with continued community participation have made many programs either costly or difficult to implement widely – a barrier for widespread adoption. In contrast, centralized organics recycling is significantly more cost effective with no need for additional collection, outreach, or new bin; requires no change in human behavior; and utilizes traditional solid waste processing equipment that easily fits in existing transfer stations or MRFs. Use of the organic waste in anaerobic digestion maximizes value by producing renewable energy with long term fixed economic value that enables long term certainty in disposal cost and competitive tip fees. Furthermore, rapid deployment of organics recycling infrastructure can be realized with use of existing anaerobic digestion assets at wastewater treatment plants. Two California case studies, including the largest food waste digester in North America under construction in Rialto CA, will be presented of centralized solid waste processing with organics extraction at MRFs coupled with use of new and existing anaerobic digestion infrastructure.