Rittmann Lab Partners with City of Mesa for Food to Energy Feasibility Study

Postdoctoral Scientist Michelle Young, Masters Researcher Rick Kupferer, and Undergraduates Riley Tesman, Veronica Ayala Bojorquez, Aamena Mookadam, and Sam Utley are all part of a project that hopes to divert food waste from landfills into anaerobic sludge digesters that contain microbes that can transform it into a renewable energy source, biogas. Biogas can be cleaned up to become renewable natural gas, which powers the city’s waste trucks! Members of the Rittmann Lab, at ASU’s Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, are optimizing operating parameters for this conversion process. Transforming waste to resources is one of our Center missions!