W. M. Lyles Co. has teamed with Anaergia, a global leader in both the agricultural and the waste sectors to deliver this one of a kind, progressive design-build project. The Rialto Bioenergy Facility (“RBF”) addresses two pressing waste management issues in Southern California: food waste diversion from landfills, and biosolids management. The RBF is designed to convert 700 tons per day of food waste, and 300 tons per day of biosolids into renewable natural gas, renewable electricity, and class A fertilizer, making it the largest project of its kind in North America.

The design includes a Receiving and Pre-Processing Area in which both Wet Fraction (food waste) and Biosolids Cake (dewatered sludge) are received and stored separately inside two Storage Silos. The cake from the Cake Silo is fed directly to the dryer, and the wet fraction is sent through a series of cyclones (dynamic and hydro) to remove any remaining in-organics before being sent to anaerobic digesters. The wet fraction is biologically broken down within the digesters and methane (biogas) is released. The solid waste is pumped to a centrifuge to be dewatered before being transferred to the dryer. The dried product undergoes pyrolysis to allow for the generation of a liquid centrate that is treated at the new WTP in an effort to capture and reuse as part of the overall project, and the pyrolyzed char will be shipped off-site via truck and sold as fertilizer. The biogas generated from this process is then converted to a RNG (Renewable Natural Gas) through a series of gas conditioning equipment and used as two forms of renewable energy. The RNG is used as fuel to operate CHP engines that generate up to 3 MW of electricity that is upgraded and pressurized then sold to Southern California Edison to be injected into the SoCal Gas pipeline.