PONOKA, Alta. – A newly patented process to break down organic waste could solve the problem of disposing of cull animal carcasses and body parts.
Biosphere Technologies of Alberta has received international patents for a process called BioRefinex to break down organic material in a pressure cooker type system using water, high temperature and pressure.
“We were trying to do something that was an improvement over the present technologies,” said Erick Schmidt of Biosphere Technologies, which owns BioRefinex.
The company has developed a number of processes to turn waste into industrial products, including the BioRefinex process that has been in development for 12 years.
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Besides processing specified risk materials such as skulls, parts of the intestine, ganglia, eyes and spinal cords as well as condemned carcasses, the thermal hydrolysis process can handle sewage, restaurant and industrial waste and urban organic waste typically sent to landfills.
Material is heated under high pressure at 180 C for 40 minutes, which destroys pathogens and significantly reduces transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents.
Confirmed or suspected cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy would not be processed because of potential risks.
The finished product resembles a thick, dark brown sludge. It smells like molasses and when further dehydrated looks like blackened coffee grounds.
Some bone chips and teeth may remain, but are chalky and easily crumble to fine white dust.
The material is concentrated and could be used as organic fertilizer or soil amendments, or further processed to produce methane gas.
Beaver County in central Alberta is especially interested in the process, said reeve Chuck McBurney.
The county has proposed moving the equipment to Ryley, where North America’s largest landfill is located.
The county has already offered to handle carcasses, specified risk materials and meat and bone meal. The material would go into a designated impermeable cell.
Sending the material to a designated landfill would ensure proper disposal and limit danger to public and environmental health.
“You know where everything is and you know how it is treated,” McBurney said.
If the hydrolysis equipment was set up at the landfill, the sterile material could be further processed as an energy source to produce electricity or organic fertilizer.
The county is willing to take whole carcasses or broken down material that is delivered to collection points around the province, but wants an agreement ensuring all material would be sent there to keep the process well supplied. McBurney said the county is not interested in investing in a multimillion-dollar system if there is no guarantee of material.
A major question is finding investors to pay for the technology.
In a presentation to government, the estimated cost of the system for equipment, startup and first year operations was $35 million.
Beaver County has formed a municipal corporation to sell the electricity generated from the process, but generation costs are slightly higher than average. The municipality hopes to sell it as green power produced from biomass under the Kyoto Protocol.
Disposing of deadstock is a growing problem. Rendering companies are charging at least $75 per carcass for pickup so many livestock producers are opting to bury dead animals on the farm. This could cause environmental problems later if material from decaying carcasses leaches into ground water.
Blair Vold, owner of Vold, Jones and Vold auction at Ponoka, said the process has possibilities.
“It is necessary to have something like this come on stream.”
He said it would show trading partners that Canada is taking the issue seriously.
The cattle industry is likely to support the concept, he added, but is not likely willing or able to fund it during this most recent economic crisis.
He does not expect older animals to be allowed back into the American market any time soon so a scientifically safe disposal system is needed for old animals, deadstock, downers, condemned animals and ruminant byproducts that are no longer allowed into the food chain.
