SEAFORD, Del. - The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) says they are hosting a virtual community workshop on Wednesday, September 28th regarding a proposal by Bioenergy Devco (BDC) to expand its Seaford facility to allow transforming organic waste in to renewable energy.
DNREC says that BDC will need several permits from them to complete this project, including Air Quality, Waste and Hazardous Substances, and Water. They say this is because they would be building what's called an anaerobic digester, which breaks down organic waste and turns it in to both soil and "biogas".
According to DNREC, the community workshop, scheduled for 6 p.m., will inform the community about BDC's expansion plans and the permits they would need to get to do it. DNREC says that closed captioning in both English and Spanish is available, and that information for registration and connection is on DNREC's event calendar.
DNREC says that about a month later, on October 26th, they will be holding a public hearing to allow pre-registered attendees to give their comments on the project. They say that closed captioning will be available at this event as well, and you can register on their public hearing webpage.
Currently, BDC is only allowed to compost waste from approved poultry industry sources, says DNREC, but the proposed expansion would allow them to process 250,000 tons of permitted organic waste per year. DNREC says that the expansion plans include a wastewater pre-treatment system, biogas upgrading plant, and an emergency generator alongside the anaerobic digester.
Byproducts from the process would include pipeline-grade renewable natural gas (RNG) and digestate, which would be dewatered and is proposed for use in the adjacent compost facility – or to be marketed in the future as a soil amendment that can be turned into compost (and which would require a distribution and marketing permit that is not part of the current proposed project and permit applications).
Specifically, information about each of the DNREC permits BDC has applied for include:
A resource recovery facility permit from the DNREC Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances to construct an anaerobic digestion system, biogas upgrading plant, and compost facility, designed to process poultry industry wastes into digestate, pipeline-grade renewable natural gas (RNG), and compost. Wastes the facility will accept include poultry litter, hatchery waste, dissolved air flotation (DAF) solid cake and liquid sludge, offal, waste activated sludge, and fats, oils, and greases.
Two 1102 Natural Minor air pollution permits from the DNREC Division of Air Quality to construct a natural gas-fired emergency generator with a standby power rating of 1,082 kilowatts (kW) (1,451 horsepower) and four anaerobic digesters with associated biogas upgrade and air pollution control equipment. The engine used in the proposed generator set is certified to comply with, and will be required to adhere to, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
Two wastewater facility construction permits from the DNREC Division of Water to construct an anaerobic digestion system and a wastewater pre-treatment system as part of the proposed resource recovery facility that processes poultry industry wastes into digestate, pipeline-grade renewable natural gas and compost. The anaerobic digestion system and wastewater pretreatment system will include three 0.208-million-gallon (MG) pretreatment tanks, and four 1.95 MG fermentation tanks, a Membrane Bioreactor System (MBR), a 0.198 MG anoxic tank, a 0.412 MG aerobic reactor, a 0.198 MG ultrafiltration feeding tank and ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis treatment systems. The treated wastewater will be pumped and hauled to the Seaford wastewater treatment and disposal facility. BDC plans for a future construction phase will eliminate the need to transport the wastewater via truck by constructing a sanitary sewer pump station and force main that will connect to a future city of Seaford force main located in front of the BDC biogas site on Seaford Road.
BDC’s permit applications and supporting materials can be found in detail on the DNREC website at de.gov/biodevco.
