Imagine if the thousands of tons of food scraps from restaurants, hotels, businesses, and schools could be transformed from waste into energy. This idea is finally becoming more realistic with new technology by the Southampton based company SEaB Energy. The new machine is called a MuckBuster. The MuckBuster looks like an average storage container from the outside.
Creating Bio-Gas from Food
The system that transforms someone’s half eaten meal into energy and heat is called anaerobic digestion technology. It is able to make biogas from the food waste. The biogas can then be turned into energy and heat to be used by the same building that produced the waste.
Using Containers to House the Technology
This technology is all wrapped up in a recycled container, making the entire system that much more energy efficient. The anaerobic digestion unit is attached to a gas collection unit, which is about 20-feet long- half the size of a storage unit. The unit can then easily be placed in back of the supermarket, school, farm, hotel, hospital, or other building using the technology.
Multiple Sizes
There are various versions being released, the smallest of which requires half a ton of food a day to operate. The largest MuckBuster made so far takes 2.5 tons of food a day. Prices will range from 150,000 to 450,000, or companies can choose to pay for the energy as it is used.
They Call it the “MuckBuster”
SEaB promises carbon reduction emissions of up to 40% a year. The first three systems are being installed at an office park, a fruit and veggie packing facility, and an agricultural college. The facilities preferred a more professional name of SEaB MB400, to the “MuckBuster”. Only time will tell if the machine sticks better than its name. SEaB is currently looking for sales and distribution partners.