genia bioenergy
Waste To Energy through a biodigester
Grupo Piñero and Genia Bioenergy bring the tourism sector closer to “zero waste”.
genia bioenergy
Grupo Piñero and Genia Bioenergy bring the tourism sector closer to “zero waste”.
The Piñero Group, one of the leading tour operators in Spain, together with the engineering company specialising in waste to energy circular economy processes, Genia Bioenergy, will install a biodigester to reduce to zero the organic waste generated at the Cayo Levantado Resort, a luxury hotel complex of 219 rooms and villas on a small island off the coast of Samaná, in the Dominican Republic.
The design of the resort, which has been completely renovated and will reopen in June this year, has taken into account the sustainability of the whole project, especially with regard to energy and water consumption and the management of the waste that will be produced there.
For example, until now, the 197 tonnes of waste from their kitchens and restaurants, together with the pruning waste from their gardens and green spaces and the sludge from their treatment plants (all their organic waste), had to be taken on barges to be managed on the island of Hispaniola, with the consequent economic cost and CO2 emissions.
With the new anaerobic microdigester developed by Genia Bioenergy for the resort, all the organic waste produced, for which it was necessary to pay for its management, will be converted into energy for self-consumption by the hotel complex through a natural process, such as anaerobic digestion, in which bacteria that live in the absence of oxygen degrade the waste, producing methane-rich biogas from renewable sources.
The biogas plant designed is prepared to manage up to 263 tonnes of organic waste each year, which will be used to produce just over 42,000Nm3/year of biogas, which will be used for thermal and electricity self-consumption through a microgenerator, helping the complex to become self-sufficient in energy.
This waste management model implements a model of absolute circularity that is at the forefront of waste to energy applications in the tourism sector, and will be complemented by other measures aimed at sustainability and the reduction of the carbon footprint of the Cayo Levantado Resort, such as the installation of a condensation drinking water production plant and photovoltaic panels for self-consumption of electricity.
Sustainability and the reduction of the carbon footprint of the tourism sector are a global priority, in which the recovery of the waste that is produced is called upon to play a leading role. As an example of other applications in the sector, Genia Bioenergy itself has designed a digester for Bangalore airport, India’s third largest airport in terms of passenger volume, which converts all the leftovers from aircraft catering, restaurants and workers’ and crews’ facilities into energy.
