The power of waste

With growth in global power demand expected to increase, advancing sustainable energy options, as alternatives to fossil fuels, is critical in meeting society’s emission reduction goals. Harnessing the power of anaerobic digestion to generate renewable energy – like Darling Ingredients does in Europe through our Ecoson brand – is a prominent, proven solution. As one of the largest industrial digestion operators in the Netherlands and Belgium, our anaerobic digestion operations produce renewable energy and nutrient-rich fertilizer ingredients from materials that many people typically consider waste. 

What is anerobic digestion?

Anaerobic digestion is a process that converts biodegradable material into several sustainable end-products, including renewable electricity and renewable natural gas (biomethane). 

At Ecoson, we start by collecting biodegradable material, including food waste and former food products, also known as FFPs or foodstuffs, from industrial food processing companies, restaurants and supermarkets, as well as waste from agriculture entities and the oleochemical industry. That material is placed in digestion tanks. Without oxygen, microorganisms break down the material, converting it into one of two main outputs: biogas for renewable energy production and digestate -- a material used in nutrient-rich fertilizer.

See this useful primer from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for more detail on the anaerobic digestion process.  

Converting biogas into renewable energy
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Consisting primarily of methane and carbon dioxide, biogas can be transformed into renewable electricity and heat through a combined heat and power unit (biogas engine), or it can purified into biomethane (renewable natural gas) and utilized in the exact same manner as conventional natural gas. 

Produced from material that would likely otherwise go to landfill, the renewable energy we produce through anaerobic digestion goes on to power both surrounding communities and our operations. In 2023, our anaerobic digestion operations produced certified renewable biogas, capable of generating 142 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity (equivalent to the consumption of nearly 53,000 households) and 59 GWh of biomethane (equivalent to the consumption of nearly 6,000 households). 

Circularity in our own operations 
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Darling Ingredients’ Ecoson and Rendac facilities in the Netherlands and Belgium have run on our own anaerobic digestion-generated renewable electricity for years. In addition, we also recycle excess heat generated in the digestion process, deploying it for use in subsequent anaerobic digestion processing and the drying of digestate. A portion of our fleet even runs on the biomethane we produce! 

The business of sustainability 
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Darling Ingredients’ anaerobic digestion capabilities through Ecoson are one of the many ways we help make entire industries less wasteful and more sustainable. Globally, Darling Ingredients transforms more than 16 million metric tons of raw material into over 350 sustainable ingredients at more than 260 facilities around the world every year.  We’re proud to power homes, schools and businesses and fuel vehicles with renewable energy derived from materials that many often see as waste, as we continually chase new opportunities to maximize our world’s resources.