The Bio-Boom Is Coming

Story by Anne Georg
Photography by Martin Limpman

Waste not, want not—this timeless saying has a new meaning as innovators start converting organic waste into useable energy.

BIOENERGY—SOUNDS INTRIGUING DOESN’TIT? Quite simply, bioenergy is a form of energy that’s created from agricultural and other organic waste. For example, manure and straw can be converted into ethanol and methane, which can be used to generate electricity; canola oil can be converted into diesel fuel.

Fifteen years ago, Olds College built a bioenergy plant. Despite its vision, the plant and the plan to convert livestock manure and other organic waste into useable energy was abandoned. The technology just wasn’t sophisticated enough.

Fast forward to 2004. The Olds College Centre for Innovation (OCCI) is again embarking on a project that will convert the manure and other waste of half a million livestock in the vicinity of Olds into electricity.“With the changing regulations governing waste management soon to come on stream and the increasing cost of electricity and natural gas, the municipality thought this was a good idea,” says Rick Tofani, director, business development, OCCI.

MANURE TO METHANE

The project is one among several in Alberta forging the way for bioenergy. For example, the Iron Creek Hutterite Colony near Viking uses livestock manure to create methane, which captures heat and circulates it through the colony to the hog and dairy barns and residences. The colony sells its excess electricity. The potassium and nitrogen separated from the manure are used to fertilize the fields.

“Bioenergy is doable in just about every small community in Alberta where there is an intensive livestock industry,” claims Tofani.

While still relatively new in Canada, bioenergy has been embraced in Europe where intensive livestock operations create huge volumes of waste materials. Canada’s expansive land mass has kept the disposal of feedlot wastes a minor issue for most people. Canadians also pay a fraction of what Europeans pay for energy, which is a disincentive to use bioenergy.

LONG-TERM INVESTMENT

But it’s just a matter of time before Canadians accept bioenergy.“Our non-renewable resources like oil and gas and coal are declining. The only question is the number of years it will take,” offers Keith Jones, president of AVAC, a Calgary-based, not-for-profit, private company dedicated to developing value-added agriculture in Alberta. “The biggest challenge thus far is price; in most cases, energy earned from other uses can’t compete with traditional energy sources.”

Governments and industry need to invest in developing bioenergy technology so it becomes economically feasible. “It’s not going to be economic from day one. The best analogy from an Alberta perspective is the Fort McMurray oil sands,” Jones says. He explains that when research started in the 1960s, the cost to produce oil from the sands was $35 a barrel. Despite the naysayers, industry invested over $20 billion in research and development. Now, it costs less than $12 a barrel to produce. “If we’d waited till oil hit $30 a barrel before we invested, the oil sands wouldn’t be working for us today,” he concludes.

It may be a stretch for an energy-rich province like Alberta to be aggressively looking at energy alternatives based on organic waste, but people passionate about bioenergy are encouraged by even the small steps being taken. •