Bio-Gas?

[cowman]

Recently I have been involved with a bio gas project. Not because I have a manure problem but because I am intensely interested in the subject!
This is the future...without a doubt!
Red Deer County is trying to get this plant up and running and it will be an example for just about every other municipality in the province!
Hats off to a forward looking ASB for investing the time and the effort to make it happen.

[tower]

I'ld like to know more about it, what sort of bio are they looking at for the production of the gas?

[tower]

Beaver County has been involved in a project for some time.
There are biodigesters in several large Confined Feeding Operations in the Province. One being the Iron Creek Colony near Bruce, AB. They sell excess power on the grid.
A large hog operation in the Peace country has a biodigester as well.

[cakadu]

As emrald has stated, they can use manure to create the various products; or processing plant wastes can be used as well i.e. offal etc that now goes to the rendering plants. They stop short of saying that it will eliminate the prions because there hasn't been any testing to prove that it does.

The feasibility study should be going ahead, which is very encouraging.

Not only is there the ability to generate electricity, the excess of which can be sold into the grid, there is also heated "grey" water that can be used by oil companies instead of good water, plus the materials left over in the digester can be used as a safe fertilizer because the heat would destroy most, if not all, pathogens.

The Hutterite colony at Iron Creek has had one up and running for about 18 months now. The interest that these biodigesters is creating is quite encouraging and it seems like it will be fairly simple to run pipe from several smaller operations so that there can be enough "fuel" to get these things going.

This is going to become more significant in the future and like most things, they will likely not be as cost-prohibitive in the future either.

[cakadu]

I had the opportunity to tour the Iron Creek biodigester. The entire operation is run by one young fellow from the colony,with backup available from the company that installed it. The one in the Peace country is a different concept, manure is piped from several large hog barns to the biodigester which is like a huge silo, while Iron Creek's are in ground .

[tower]

The only prions I could find in the dictionaries were a type of south american sea bird. I guess my books need updating. lol I see from the web it has to do with Mad cow disease, as in the infectious agent?

Thanks for the info, sounds like a positive step in a lot of ways. What size hog farms, or beef? are we talking about?

[cowman]

I believe right now 7000 head feedlot is about the minimum. But then beef manure is not the best product. And neither are hogs! The best product is packing house waste and the best manure is dairy. Dead animals, trucked in, is a distinct possibility down the road. Eventually these bio-digestors might be able to handle just about anything that is of an organic nature.
This plant in Red Deer County will use a variety of energy streams. The plan is to identify areas that look promising and make a decision on where to locate the first bio-digestor. That is not just picking where the most manure is but how willing the producers are to participate? If the whole thing is profitable then the intent is to build more.
There is intense research into putting an energy value on the manures available and how to blend the mix to get the most benifit, both from an economic side, a social side and an environmental side.
There is some major government money being made available on many levels. The ultimate kicker for this plant would be if the Kyota accord is implemented! Carbon credits could produce a very tidy profit. This looks like a good investment, in my opinion!
Oh, and by the way the NGC packing house in Pincher Creek will produce all its electricity and heat requirements through a bio digestor, as well as have some power to sell on the grid! What was a waste has now become a very valuable profit center!

[cakadu]

You are quite correct cowman and so far the interest from producers in the County has been encouraging. The reality of the future is that any and all organic materials will either be composted or put through the digester to render them harmless to the environment.

Tower, the prions are what they term rogue proteins because they don't have the chemical make up of regular proteins and it is my understanding that they can mutate into other strains. The challenge with prions in the digester is that so far they haven't been able to conclusively determine at what temperatures the prions are destroyed. Hopefully some of that information will come out of the new research facility and team at the University of Alberta that has been charged with the task of studying these types of diseases.

The RD County Ag Service Board has been solidly behind the bio-digester for over a year now and the interest and motivation for it continues to grow.

[cakadu]

The operation in the Peace region is a mega hog operation. Iron Creek has a milking sheep operation as well as broilers and a smaller scale hog operation.
Iron Creek uses the recycled water from the biodigester as wash water for their barns. Highland Feeders is also involved in a biodigester, in conjuction with the Alberta Research Council.

[cakadu]

The biodigester that Highland Feeders/Renewables is involved in is the construction of a power plant fueled by cattle manure that will produce one megawatt of electricity from the waste of 7,500 cattle. The project is known as IMUS - Integrated Manure Utilizaton System.

[cakadu]

Biodigesters are still an extremely expensive way to dispose of manure, and are out of reach of the average sized confined feeding operator.

[cowman]

emerald: That is very true, however things change, technology changes, social values change? The days of just spreading manure are rapidly coming to an end? The Kyota Accord could radically change everything?
I suspect in the future there could be some very small, cheap, economically viable bio-digestors on the market? However to move forward in any new technology you have to start implementing it? That way we see what works and what doesn't and how we can "tweak" the system to get the most bang for our buck!
And I also suspect the day will come when some of these new technologies will be commonplace and we will have a healthier environment and a better bottom line?

[tower]

Quite a few years ago I heard that small scale methane production was making headway in India. Perhaps in those days it wouldn't have been the most efficient process but sometimes we pay too much for a small improvement in efficiency.

[tower]

Cowman, even now there are regulations with respect to manure . All manure must be incorporated within 48 hours unless it is spread on hay or pasture land or land that is direct seeded. Alberta is on the forefront of regulations with regard to manure storage and handling. Cow/calf operations will also come under the provincial regulations effective January 1/05. This will affect Seasonal Feeding and Bedding Sites, and the legislation I refer to is the Agricultural Operations Practices Act.
In the very near future though I do not see a ban on land spreading of manure. It is a nutrient and certainly is much more economical way to apply nitrogen.

[ValueChainFX]

For those interested in this technology you can see more information (with pictures) on the following website http://www.clear-green.com/.

Enjoy