Renewable Natural Gas, Biofertilizer Generated via Avocado Waste

Entrepreneurs are creating renewable natural gas and biofertilizers with avocado waste in Michoacan. This is a clear example of the so-called circular economy, where waste is prevented from becoming a contaminant by turning it into something useful, in this case into clean energy.

With the construction of high-capacity biodigesters to produce biogas, organic fertilizer and reduce residual pollution, Michoacan is tapping into a new source of green energy. A team of industrialists, engineers, biologists, agronomists and businessmen discovered how to transform avocado waste into energy. In Periban, a municipality located on the geographical limits of the Purepecha plateau, industrial boilers are now powered with biogas produced from hundreds of tons of avocado waste.

Rogelio Sosa López, an entrepreneur in the municipality of Zitacuaro, Michoacan, is one of the pioneers of this system. Back in 2012, he looked for alternatives to lower production costs, which culminated in the construction of a cactus-fed biodigester that today produces biogas.

With a team of researchers, engineers, agronomists, industrialists, biologists, and workers, the company Energías Verdes de Michoacan (ENAVEM) has gained strong expertise in the creation of biofuels through a process that prevents natural decomposition from generating methane gas in the atmosphere. Instead, this methane is captured and used as a clean energy source to power vehicles and boilers.

The processing capacity of this infrastructure is 100Ml/d of organic matter, thanks to the controlled decomposition of waste, they currently produce 10Mcf/d, the equivalent of thousand cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas, and 40Ml/d of organic fertilizer.

“We can transform natural gas into any type of energy, we currently use it only for boilers in our own oil factory and for vehicles. This is the first renewable clean energy with the potential to replace gasoline and any other energy sourced from fossil fuels,” assured Sosa.

The same system can process many other forms of organic waste coming from fruits or plants. Sosa added that the company was ready to take on new challenges such as cleaning urban wastewater, generating the energy to power a wáter treatment plant and obtaining biofertilizer as a byproduct.