| | In 2001, the Iron Creek Hutterite Colony near Viking was facing electricity bills of $250,000 annually, manure management issues, and costly water shortages. Those challenges prompted the colony to partner with Ponoka-based BioGem Power Systems Inc. to build Alberta’s first commercial facility to produce methane from manure. Now the colony is generating revenue from electricity sales, reducing its own heat and electricity costs, conserving water, lowering manure application costs, and minimizing odours.
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| Capital cost | $2,000,000 |
| Average electricity sale price | $0.065/kWh |
| Operating and maintenance costs | $0.02/kWh |
| Electrical energy output | 350kW per hour; more than 3,000,000 kWh/year |
| Revenues for electricity | $95,645/year |
| Savings in electricity | $145,102/year |
| Savings in heat | $202,954/year |
| Savings in manure application | $100,000/year |
| Savings in water hauling | $60,000/year |
| Estimated payback period* | 4.1 years |
*Payback is based on electrical and heating revenue and savings as well as by accounting for reduced
operating costs.
Construction of the facility began in late 2001 and was completed within four months. The facility is sized to accommodate manure from a 1,200-hog farrow-to-finish operation. It can use manure from the colony’s hogs, sheep, chickens and cattle. It can also handle the wastes from the colony’s new slaughterhouse, but those wastes require grinding first.
The BioGem technology is European technology used in biogas systems around the world. Manure and slaughterhouse wastes are flushed into a receiving tank, and any solids are chopped into uniform pieces. Then the material is sent to one of the facility’s three anaerobic digesters. Bacteria in the digesters naturally produce various types of gas including methane as they decompose and ferment the manure and wastes. The biogas is captured in a rubber cap and transferred to a piston engine, which generates electricity and heat.
The facility has an automated system to ensure the process produces uniform biogas amounts and quality (60 to 75% methane). The system generates 350 kilowatts (kW) of electrical energy per hour and 770 kW of heat energy per hour. Some of the heat and electricity is used by the colony and to operate the facility, and some of the electricity is sold to the provincial power grid.
The digestion process also produces wastewater and a nearly odourless biofertilizer – two vital benefits for the colony. Before the facility was built, the colony’s manure application costs were high because the manure had to be trucked up to 25 km for application. The digestion process radically reduces manure volumes, thereby reducing application costs, and also minimizes odours. In 2001, the colony was hauling water to meet its needs. So it added a system to purify the digester’s wastewater for use as wash water, saving $60,000 a year for water hauling.
The colony and the company jointly funded the facility’s capital cost, an estimated $2 million for the digester system (plus about $500,000 for the wastewater treatment system). With the revenues and cost savings, payback for the digester system is about four years (see table).
The biogas company is now called OpenEnergy Sources, a division of Adam Integrated Industries Inc. “OpenEnergy handles the BioGem product line, the biogas plants, and the EnerBloc product line, combined heat and power facilities,” explains Grant Meikle of OpenEnergy.
OpenEnergy is currently negotiating with three operations in western Canada to develop biogas facilities using manure and/or slaughterhouse wastes. Key issues for farmers interested in this process include maintenance, access to the grid, and the amount of manure needed to make the process feasible.
Regular maintenance is essential. OpenEnergy can provide it or train the client to do it.
The approval process for the Iron Creek facility to enter the grid took seven and a half months. Meikle hopes that can be streamlined in the future.
How big a livestock operation is big enough? Meikle says, “At today’s energy prices, it would be feasible for someone who has, for instance, a 100-cow dairy.” He adds, “If you’re looking at a biogas plant in a smaller application and you’re looking for a three-year payback, it probably won’t be there. If you’re looking for something that is going to take care of a manure or waste problem and have an eight- or nine-year payback, it will work for you.”
This article is partly adapted from Tanya McDonald’s “A Changing Business Model at Iron Creek BioGem Plant”.(Ref. www.climatechangecentral.com) |
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