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Manure from thousands of southern Alberta cattle will be used to supply renewable natural gas, while at the same time harmful carbon dioxide emissions will be buried, in a first-of-its-kind project.
Taurus Canada Renewable Natural Gas Corp.’s plan to build an integrated anaerobic digestion and carbon sequestration facility near Lethbridge was unveiled Thursday, boosted by millions of dollars in grants from the Alberta and federal governments.
Once its Central Farms facility is built, Taurus will transform 130,000 tonnes of manure sourced from nearby cattle feedlots into 360,000 gigajoules of natural gas per year — enough energy to power about 4,000 homes, or the entirety of the nearby Town of Coaldale.
The small-scale energy project was among six initiatives revealed Thursday that received a combined $28 million from Emissions Reduction Alberta’s annual Industrial Transformation Challenge.
Taurus acquired a $10-million grant from Alberta and got $3.4 million through the federal government’s Low Carbon Economy Fund, while using its own equity and loans to cover the $85-million cost for the plant.
Alberta’s newly-minted environment minister Grant Hunter, who is also the local MLA, said his United Conservative government wants to support domestic innovators.
“All of this is good for the energy sector. All of this is good for Alberta, the economy and the environment,” Hunter said from outside Coaldale.
How does manure turn into power?
Taurus detailed a multi-step process that will be used to create natural gas.
Livestock manure will be collected from four feedlots and transported to a facility, where it will be stored inside to contain the smell.
Producing food is producing energy, and so this is just an evolution of what we’re creating here.– Ryan Kasko, Kasko Cattle Company
The waste is then fed into a pre-treatment system, and diluted with processed water to create a slurry and to remove any rocks or small stones.
Next, in a process known as anaerobic digestion, the slurry is pumped into fully enclosed tanks and maintained at 40 C in an oxygen-free environment for up to a month.
Natural microbiological processes break down the manure, producing both biogas and nutrient-rich digestate.
The CO2 will be injected into a 1.5-kilometre deep well for permanent storage.
“You need to have the right geological formations beneath you to do that,” said Taurus executive Phillip Abrary. “The geological formations in Alberta are ideally suited for those types of activities.”
Meanwhile, the customer-ready renewable natural gas will be transported to a nearby pipeline.
Finally, three different forms of digestate will be produced for agricultural use in the region.
Fred Ghatala, president of Advanced Biofuels Canada, told CBC News that combining various existing technologies in a project like this creates an “enviable Venn diagram” of innovation.
“It is just another example of how we can use the things that Canada produces in abundance to lower our carbon footprint, increase our energy security and expand our GDP that is not impacted by foreign trade relationships.”
‘An evolution’
Ryan Kasko, chief executive of Kasko Cattle Company — one of two family-owned feedlots that will provide the manure — described the new partnership with Taurus as a natural step forward.
“Producing food is producing energy, and so this is just an evolution of what we’re creating here,” Kasko said during a news conference near Coaldale.
He added that the government funding helps to mitigate the risk for a technology that “could be a transformation for southern Alberta agriculture.”
Daryl Bennett, a surface rights advocate based in Taber, Alta., said the Taurus facility is an example of a landowner-friendly project without downsides.
“The fact is that a lot of these feedlots have to deal with large amounts of manure, and this seems to be an environmentally-responsible manner to do it,” Bennett said.
“It’ll reduce a lot of carbon emissions just from having to haul the manure, we still get the benefits of the fertilizer, and it seems like a well-thought out project.”
