Dean Foods

At a Glance
• System Configuration: 5 × C65 Grid Connect Capstone Microturbines with gas conditioning
• Annual Generation: >2.0 Million kWh/year continuous baseload power
• Energy Savings: ~$150,000 / year in reduced facility operating expenses
• Thermal Integration: 2,150,000 BTU/hr (2.15 MMBtu/hr) of recovered hot water fed back into anaerobic digesters


The Challenge
Dairy processing plants produce high-volume wastewater streams with heavy organic loads. At its Franklin, Massachusetts processing plant, Dean Foods faced substantial ongoing utility costs to power milk production operations, as well as the significant thermal energy needed to maintain anaerobic digester temperatures. To minimize grid dependence, lower operating costs, and meet stringent corporate sustainability targets, the facility needed a reliable system to capture waste methane and convert it directly into high-value power and heat.


The Solution
Veristar Energy supports and services a 325 kW biogas-powered Combined Heat & Power (CHP) system featuring five C65 microturbines integrated with specialized biogas conditioning equipment.
• Onsite Carbon-Negative Power: Converts byproduct dairy gas into over 2,000 MWh of clean electricity annually, offsetting high-cost grid purchases and generating carbon-negative baseload power.
• Digester Thermal Loop Integration: Recovers 2.15 MMBtu/hr of exhaust thermal energy as hot water, recycling heat back into the anaerobic digesters to maintain optimal biological processing temperatures.
• Specialized Biogas Conditioning: Leverages Unison Solutions gas treatment systems to clean, compress, and condition raw biogas for clean combustion and long-term equipment protection.
• Multi-Unit Modular Reliability: Utilizes five modular microturbines to dynamically match continuous facility power demand while maintaining high system uptime.


The Results
• $150,000 Annual Savings: Significantly reduces utility expenditures while lowering the site’s net energy demand.
• Closed-Loop Sustainability: Transforms waste streams from milk processing into a continuous source of renewable power and heat, directly supporting a circular economy model.
• Grid Independence & Tariff Hedging: Shields facility operations from regional utility price spikes by producing reliable energy behind the meter.
• Reduced Carbon Footprint: Captures harmful waste methane that would otherwise be flared or emitted, turning environmental liabilities into an operational asset.