By Geoff Smith (@GeoffSmithLNN on Twitter)

Plant expansion turns animal carcasses into clean energy

Sep 18, 2017 | 12:15 PM

LETHBRIDGE – An upgrade to a plant on Lethbridge’s eastern outskirts now has the capability to produce 30 per cent more green energy.

Lethbridge Biogas is now set up with a new processing line for animal byproducts. For nearly four years the company has been generating energy using a process called anaerobic digestion on feedstock such as manure and food processing byproducts. Director of operations Stefan Michalski explains the upgrade gets into something they’ve planned all along: processing waste from slaughterhouses, and even complete animal carcasses.

“There’s a slaughterhouse for chickens, there’s a slaughterhouse for pigs, so all of these facilities have leftovers that need to be disposed of. We understand ourselves as a sustainable alternative to landfilling,” Michalski said. “Now we’re adding a different, let’s say another product into the mix, that’s really the extent of it.”

Processing animal carcasses serves another goal. Michalski added the plant is licensed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for prion destruction, providing for the safe disposal of specified risk materials.

“So what we can do with that product is up to us after we put it through our process and it’s not restricted anymore and it can go back into land application and use as fertilizer,” he said. “So that’s the novelty of what we’re doing, which is not around at this point anywhere else.”

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The process of anaerobic digestion involves applying 38-degree heat to the product, in an oxygen-free environment. The digesters are large tanks, visible from Highway 3 in the Rave Industrial Park. Microbes eat away at the feed stock, releasing methane gas that is cleaned and turned into power and heat.

Michalski says the process is the same for using animal byproducts.

“We’re just adding another material that’s energy rich and solves some other problems environmentally and use it for some production here.”

The new line has been in the testing phase for several week, and is being fine-tuned.