Fortune, Sept 15 (II)

choi

(3) Beth Kowitt, Harnessing the Energy of Uneaten Vegetables. Harvest Power is transforming food waste into a power source. Could your child’s untouched broccoli help provide electricity?    (under the heading: “No 2 -- The Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink”)
http://fortune.com/2015/09/09/harvest-power-kathleen-ligocki/
(Kathleen Ligochi, CEO of Harvest Power)

Note:
(a) "Harvest [Power] has constructed an anaerobic digester (with two massive domed tanks) whose processes emulate those in a cow’s stomach. 'It’s biomimicry,' Ligocki says, 'but more efficient.' "
(i) ruminant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant
(section 1 Explanation; section 5 Rumen microbiology)

Take notice that cellulose, which comprises cell wall of plants are also made of glucose. The difference between cellulose on the one hand, and starch (from plant) and glycogen (from animals) on the other hand, is that in the former glucose is linked by β(1→4) glycosidic bond (a bond similar to ether chemically), whereas in the latter, the linkage is through α(1→4) glycosidic bond.
(i) The 1 and 4 refers to carbons 1 and 4 of a glucose (which has six carbon atoms).
(ii) The β and α are the two different links when viewed in 3-D. In other words, this is the only difference that explains why humans, say, can not get energy from grass. (We eat vegetable, to get fibers and vitamin C -- but not to break down cell wall to obtain glucose.)
(ii) Chapter 3 Digestive Physiology. In Roger Buckland and Gérard Guy (ed), Goose Production. FAO, 2002 (FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 154)
www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4359e/y4359e05.htm
("Microbiological fermentation of dietary fibre occurs in the caeca (plural form of c(a)ecum 盲腸] after which the digesta passes into the large intestine (there is also microbial digestion here)")

(b) "The digesters use microbes to break down a mixture of 20% food waste; 20% fats, oils, and grease; and 60% treated sewage (euphemistically called biosolids) from Disney’s nearby wastewater treatment plant."

treated sewage = biosolids = feces (a word used in medicine) / shit  (which supplies nitrogen atoms, or organic material; fermentation alone produces glucose and its by products such as alcohol or lactic acid).
(c) " 'When you add food waste to biosolids, it’s like crack [cocaine]—biogas crack,' Ligocki says. 'You just produce a lot more energy.' "