Title: Making fuel from food waste - Harvest Power in The Boston Globe

Industry sector: Biofuels, Waste To Energy

Making fuel from food waste
Waltham firm must clear hurdles before capitalizing on leftovers

By Scott Kirsner

A hungry young company in Waltham is eyeing that half-eaten bagel on your plate, that grapefruit rind, and those first few pancakes that didn’t come out quite right. Harvest Power Inc. looks at leftover food from homes, restaurants, and supermarkets as an underutilized resource.

Today, nearly all of it heads to the landfill. In Harvest Power’s vision of the future - supported by $40 million in funding from investors like venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers of California and the trash-hauler Waste Management Inc. - it has the potential to be turned into compost, electricity, natural gas, or steam for heating.

“Twenty years ago, yard waste wasn’t separated, and it went to the landfill - and the United States produces about as much food waste as we do yard waste,’’ says Harvest Power chief executive Paul Sellew.

Most cities and towns collect yard waste separately and send it to facilities for composting. There are about 30 such facilities in Massachusetts, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Sellew would like to see the same sort of shift happen with excess food, and policy makers and planning agencies such as the Boston Redevelopment Authority seem interested. Harvest is set to begin building its first energy-producing plant in Vancouver, Canada, later this year, and is proposing another for San Jose, Calif.

Read the full column at The Boston Globe.