Biogas plants for the food and beverage industry

Turn brewery, dairy and food-processing waste into biomethane, food-grade CO2 and biofertiliser.

Turn food and beverage waste into on-site renewable energy

Breweries, dairies, and food processors pay to dispose of organic waste and face tightening rules on where it can go. A biogas plant for the food and beverage industry converts those streams into renewable energy at the point they arise, replacing part of the site’s gas or electricity demand and cutting waste treatment costs. HoSt Bioenergy Systems has delivered more than 450 renewable energy projects worldwide and builds each plant around the specific waste a producer generates. Food and beverage references range from breweries such as Grolsch to a sugar-processing plant in Belgium that digests up to 200 tonnes of beet residues a day during the campaign and feeds the biogas straight back into sugar production. For the underlying technology, see our organic waste biogas plants and anaerobic digestion pages.

Which food and beverage waste streams suit anaerobic digestion

Brewery, dairy, and food-processing residues

Spent grains, whey, wash water, out-of-spec product, and de-packaged food waste all digest well. Because these streams vary through the production week, HoSt sizes the feeding and mixing system to keep the process stable across changing loads.

FOGS and slaughterhouse waste

HoSt biogas plant - feedstock - slaughterhouse waste

Fats, oils and greases (FOGS) are energy-dense and raise biogas yield in co-digestion. For category 2 slaughterhouse by-products, HoSt includes thermal pressure hydrolysis and sanitation within the plant scope to meet animal by-product rules.

What a food and beverage biogas plant produces

Biomethane for process heat and grid injection
Raw biogas can drive on-site heat and power or be upgraded to biomethane, a direct substitute for the natural gas that heat-intensive food processing already runs on.
Food-grade bio-CO2 back into your production
Upgrading separates a biogenic CO2 stream. HoSt can capture, purify and liquefy it to food-grade quality, so a beverage producer can return its own CO2 to carbonation or processing rather than buying it in.
Digestate as biofertiliser
Depending on composition and regulations, digestate is valorised as an organic biofertiliser, closing the nutrient cycle.

Biogas from sugar beet waste

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At Fontenoy, Belgium, this HoSt biogas plant turns beet residues such as beet tops into renewable energy. It is the second plant HoSt built for the client, following a first success for Iscal, and it processes up to 200 tonnes of waste a day during the sugar-beet campaign. After pretreatment, the biogas feeds directly into Isera & Scaldis’ sugar production, matching the waste stream to the factory’s heat demand and reducing its reliance on fossil natural gas.

View the project

HoSt biogas plant - Fontenoy (Finasucre) Belgium