US: Illinois Tech scientists develop container farm that runs on food waste
Elena Timofeeva, research professor in chemistry, and John Katsoudas, senior research associate in physics, have started a company, AquaGrow Technologies, to design and build the farms.
Each AquaGrow farm will be housed in a 45-foot-long container with a new type of flat aenaerobic biodigester unit, developed in collaboration with Nullam Consulting, that is scaled to the energy needs of the container. The biodigester will convert food waste to methane fuel, which in turn will power the farm operation, so the unit does not need to be connected to the grid.
Timofeeva and Katsoudas are working on the scaled prototype, and they calculate that a full- scale farm unit in a 45-foot-high cube cargo container will annually produce 14,500 pounds of fresh produce, 1,100 pounds of fish, 110 MWh of energy, and 45 tons of high-value fertilizer and will eliminate 155 tons of food waste and 40 tons of CO2, while generating $40,000 to $80,000 in profit.
Read more at phys.org