Plant expansion turns animal carcasses into clean energy
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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.
