Heat exchangers and pasteurization units from CH4 Biogas are two stages of processing waste into methane gas. Source: CH4 Biogas.

Campbell Soup Company, partnering with CH4 Biogas LLC, will construct Ohio’s first commercial biogas power plant to generate renewable electricity. The processor will direct waste generated from its soup, sauce and beverage production in Napoleon, OH, diverting 35 to 50 percent of its current waste away from Henry County landfills.

Campbell’s anaerobic digester will process material from area food processors, waste recyclers and local dairy farms, generating methane gas that will be used to produce energy for Campbell’s existing beverage production and offsetting fossil fuel usage. The power generated for the beverage facility will replace about 25 percent of Campbell’s Napoleon facility’s annual electricity use. A 15-year power purchase and services agreement will allow Campbell to use all the electricity generated at a flat cost.

The biogas power plant, Napoleon Biogas, will be located on more than seven acres of land directly across the street from the Campbell site in Harrison Township. CH4 designed, owns and will operate the site, acting as stewards of the land, protecting the watershed and recycling the waste in an environmentally sustainable way. Other area industry and farming operations will also be able to leverage the facility. The digester was designed to handle approximately 450 tons of mixed waste organic material a day, leaving 60 percent available capacity.

“This new biogas technology will improve Campbell’s Napoleon recycling rate to approximately 95 percent, reaching the company’s 2020 destination goal for the site early,” says Dave Stangis, Campbell’s vice president of public affairs and corporate responsibility. “The use of biogas energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of electricity in this facility by approximately 16,000 metric tons per year, or the equivalent of 3,000 cars.”

Construction is underway and slated for completion in mid-2013. The site is adjacent to a 60-acre, 9.8 MW solar system that currently provides 15 percent of the power for Campbell’s Napoleon facility.