Vermont Technical College to Shut Down Anaerobic Digester

Vermont Technical College’s $4.2 million anaerobic digester is closing down this December. Due to a lack of available food scraps, the digester hasn’t been able to operate at full capacity.

The digester came online in 2014, and it was the first digester in the state to go through the permitting process to accept food waste, according to an article by VTDigger.

The digester had been feeding between 100,000 and 250,000 kilowatt hours per month onto the grid, and while it’s about to shut down, there’s a possibility that it could start back up again in the future.

VTDigger has more information:

Vermont Technical College will stop running its $4.2 million anaerobic digester in Randolph this December, citing problems with availability of food residuals.

The college made the decision public on Sept. 13, said Amanda Chaulk, director of marketing and communications for Vermont Tech.

“This is something that will let us … narrow our focus to our core mission, which is primarily to provide educational excellence,” she said.

The shutdown decision was based on economic, not technological, challenges, said Chaulk. Vermont Tech did not have enough food scraps to operate the digester at full capacity, which they attribute in part to delays in requiring haulers to collect compost.

Read the full story here.