Cavendish Offers Green ‘First’:
Bio-Gas Unit Recycles Potato Waste

A new bio-gas operation at Cavendish Farms became operational in June.

Cavendish Farms, a major Canadian producer of frozen potato products, is now producing something else: bio-gas, a vital new element in its environmental action plan, and a first for the potato industry in North America.

While most facilities treat waste water produced from processing, the Cavendish bio-gas facility at New Annan, Prince Edward Island, Canada, also takes the solid waste material from potato processing and, through anaerobic digestion (a natural process similar to composting), converts it into energy for the Cavendish processing plants.

“We are proud to unveil our bio-gas facility as an example of our corporate approach to researching, investing and implementing innovative new ways that we can create sustainable and environmentally friendly processing methodologies,” said Robert Irving, president of Cavendish Farms, at the official opening of the plant. “The investment in this new technology benefits our environment while being financially beneficial to our business model.”

The Cavendish Farms project is said to mark the single largest reduction in greenhouse gases on the island. Among the environmental benefits it will help achieve are a 30-35% reduction in the overall carbon footprint of potato processing operations, reduced dependence on fossil fuel used to power boilers (about 10 million liters per year), fewer trucks to bring in fuel, elimination of the need for trucks to remove potato waste (reducing travel by 1,450 kilometers a day) and creation of an organic, natural fertilizer that can be used on fields in place of potato waste.

The original idea for the facility was explored in 2004, with development beginning in earnest during 2006. The project was led by the J.D. Irving engineering team with support by Stantec Engineering from Fredericton, New Brunswick, and the German firm of Krieg & Fischer Engineering GmbH, an engineering company specializing in bio-gas plant design around the world.