Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre, a division of Harvest Power, has received a $1.5 million grant from the BC Bioenergy Network (BCBN), an industry-led association that supports bioenergy development and demonstration in British Columbia (BC).
The funding is offered to set up an innovative organic waste to clean renewable energy demonstration plant, Energy Garden, in the Lower Mainland of BC. The establishment will remove 27,000 tonnes of municipal green waste such as yard debris and food scraps from BC landfills.
In the total funding, a $1 million will be used to establish a High Solids Anaerobic Digestion (HSAD) facility and the remaining $500,000 will be utilized to acquire a pilot scale HSAD testing system called Mobile Energy Harvester. The HSAD facility will convert organic waste to electricity. The project has also secured $4 million from the Government of Canada.
The innovative Energy Garden will process the municipal green waste using an anaerobic digestion method. The method converts the waste into biogas, which will later be used to generate over 6,000 MWh of electricity every year. The energy will be sufficient to power about 700 homes in British Columbia. The residual organic waste that remains after the anaerobic digestion process will be composted and transferred to local gardens and farms.
Initially, the pilot scale HSAD testing unit will be deployed at the Fraser Richmond Soil and Fibre plant and later tour across North America. Mobile Energy Harvester will be used to assess the digestion of green waste and will enable the local groups to evaluate benefits, risks and economics associated with the deployment of this innovative system. In addition, the unit helps to educate the local communities about the contribution made by similar demonstration projects to the bioenergy market.
Source: http://www.bcbioenergy.ca/