Imperial College London Installation 2010/2011
Installed IMC’s maceration and dewater and IVC (in Vessel composter)
With 90 buildings around the campus including research facilities and 2 teaching hospitals they were looking for a cost effective means to remove food waste. At Imperial College, food waste is produced from two main areas, the main refectory kitchen, that serves 3 dining halls, and two kitchens serving prestigious restaurants. There are also several cafes sited around the Campus. Around 1.1 tons of food waste is produced each week during term time. Working closely with IMC, the College had opted to address the disposal of food waste produced by the main refectory kitchen and dining halls at source, by equipping the kitchen with a Food Waste Disposer and Dewaterer which have been integrated into stainless steel tabling that also houses a spray hose reel. All food waste generated by the kitchen in the preparation and serving of the food and by the dining halls from leftovers, is processed immediately and the dewatered waste kept in small, lidded 23 liter bins in readiness for composting. Food waste generated at the other restaurants on-campus is collected in marked bins for processing at a central location on site where the bins are emptied on to a sorting table, in order that any non-food items can be removed, prior to macerating and dewatering. The dewatered waste from both the main kitchen and restaurants is then loaded into the IVC in an operation that takes only a few minutes each day. In a world first, the College had commissioned a self-contained, modular building in which to house the waste sorting table, with its own macerator and dewaterer, and the IVC. The building, referred to as the `CompPod’. The CompPod therefore comprises all of the equipment recommended for best practice and housekeeping standards including even a radiator to keep the operator warm in the depths of winter. Finishes to all the interior surfaces are easy to wash down and clean whilst the layout is designed to maximize operator efficiency by facilitating the smooth transition of the food from waste material to a high quality end product.
In the first year alone since installing the food waste dewatering products Imperial College had diverted 110 tons of food waste from landfills and saved over $167,000 in waste treatment and disposal costs. The return on investment for their project was 16 month including the dewatering equipment the IVC and the “Compod”
Data by IMC and Imperail College London Y.K.
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