CR&R, Eisenmann build North American green waste AD project

CR&R Environmental Services is building what it believes is the largest organics conversion facility in North America at its Perris, Calif., location, having recently completed navigation of a comprehensive permitting process.

CR&R, which will fuel its fleet of collection vehicles on compressed natural gas generated from the AD facility, developed the nation’s first large-scale solid waste processing facility over 20 years ago.

Its Perris facility, which is permitted to process over 80,000 tons of organic waste per year in phase one and may expand to process by nearly four times that amount in the next several phases, is utilizing Eisemann’s high-solids anaerobic digestion technology.

 “A successful project requires understanding and planning for the materials that our facility will receive and process,” said Mike Silva, CR&R Organics Processing project leader. “Eisenmann’s high-solids technology was clearly the best solution for organics management, enabling CR&R to process the broadest range of materials.”

Materials received will include both green and food waste, which Kyle Goehring, regional sales manager of Eisenmann, said is a notable aspect of the project. Others include the size of the project—up to 300,000 tons of waste per year—which represents the largest facility Eisenmann will have realized worldwide; the location of the project—one of the country’s most difficult districts to achieve an air permit in— and integration of an AD project within an existing waste hauler's operations.

On the project timeline, Goehring said construction should be completed in June, with commissioning complete by October. "The unique location, size, feedstock recipe and partner make the CR&R project unprecedented for Eisenmann as well as the industry,” he said. “Eisenmann is excited by the transformative nature of this project for both the refuse and biogas industries."

Achieving the permit-to-construct milestone marks the start of the most significant project in the waste industry since the inception of statewide recycling in California over 20 years ago, according to CR&R.