Firm turns sludge, road kill into profit.One man's waste is another's gold. A new Sudbury green-energy company is searching for some entrepreneurial partners to establish the North's first bio-gas power plant. Waste material that otherwise might be trucked off to the landfill or flushed down the sewer holds real potential as an additive in a German-developed process to produce methane gas used to generate heat and electricity. Warren Maskell, manager of sales and technical services for Custom Bio-Gas Inc., believes there are a variety of feed sources in Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River and Lake Nipissing. Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km² (310,000 mi²) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it . These feed sources include brewery waste, abattoir abattoir (ăb'ətwär`) [Fr.], building for butchering. The abattoir houses facilities to slaughter animals; dress, cut and inspect meats; and refrigerate, cure, and manufacture byproducts. waste, manure, municipal sludge, saw dust and road kill and can be valuable commodities to be ground up and mixed to produce high-value end products, such as methane gas and compost from a bio-gas plant. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BEA BEA - Basic programming Environment for interactive-graphical Applications, from Siemens-Nixdorf. Dithmarschen GmbH has entered into a partnership agreement with Gagnon Renewables, a Sudbury environmental company, to form Custom Bio-Gas Inc. The partnership will deliver proven German technology to North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. for designing and building bio-gas plants or refitting existing North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. ones. BEA has operated a bio-gas plant in St. Michaelisdonn, Germany since 1996, considered one of the country's largest bio-gas operations. Maskell believes their proposal can create new revenue streams for project partners by creating commodities out of what is generally regarded as waste, and at the same time offset some heating and electrical requirements for developments such as industrial parks or hospitals. His company is looking to set up a pilot program to demonstrate the technology. "Our interest is to target municipalities that might be trying to reduce typical waste streams," says Maskell, who adds there are savings to be realized through partnerships in supplying waste material to a bio-gas facility rather paying the costs to transport it to landfill. "I think this project is an extension of being responsible to the environment. We're mishandling our products and we're re-applying them to the land. "What we've got to look at is how can we join waste materials and provide another option." Bio-gas is generated when bacteria degrade TO DEGRADE, DEGRADING. To, sink or lower a person in the estimation of the public. 2. As a man's character is of great importance to him, and it is his interest to retain the good opinion of all mankind, when he is a witness, he cannot be compelled to disclose biological material in the absence of oxygen in a process known as anaerobic digestion Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the natural process of biological degradation of organic material in the absence of air. An anaerobic digester is a man-made system that harnesses this process to treat waste and produce biogas and anaerobic digestate, a soil-improving material. , the same natural process that occurs in digestive systems, marshes and septic tanks. Since bio-gas is a mixture of methane (also known as marsh gas marsh gas: see methane. or natural gas) and carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. , it is a renewable fuel produced from waste treatment. Through a process called co-fermentation, Custom Bio-Gas mixes in other organic waste material besides manure, which has shown potential to dramatically increase yields. The general rule of thumb is one metric tonne of manure will produce 15 cubic metres of methane. That is considered uneconomical and that is why many bio-gas plants in North America have failed, says Maskell. His German partners have developed a special "recipe" blending in other key organic ingredients such as bloodmeal and other higher value waste such as alcohol or sugar water into a process that can boost production to approximately 90 cubic metres of methane per tonne of material inputted. Similar in ways to a co-generation plant, the gas produced is burned in a combustion engine, which powers a generator. The methane can be converted to electricity and the water used to cool the engine also stores a tremendous amount of heat energy. The electricity and heat generated can be used to heat or cool a new development such as an industrial park or hospital, used in farming operations or industrial processes with the surplus power sold off for transmission into the local grid system. Maskell says the Sudbury area can supply about 100,000 to 200,000 cubic metres annually of material for a bio-gas facility, providing an electrical output of between five to 15 megawatts. Maskell says most potential customers they have approached are "fascinated" by the idea and some financial institutions have expressed interest in bankrolling the project. A Peterborough, Ont. waste management company, Tri Land Environmental, with experience in hauling and applying liquid waste, has joined the partnership group. www.bea-biogas.com By IAN ROSS Ian Ross is the name of:
Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. 
I have a product (sludge) from fuel storage tanks such as diesel,wondering if yor company has any solutions other than manefest the waste-to land fills? |
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