If you asked someone what dead cattle and lobsters have in common, they probably wouldn’t guess that they could be used to power homes on Prince Edward Island.
But, here we are.
P.E.I. Agriculture Minister Bloyce Thompson said in the legislature Friday that it’s a promising idea that’s likely to happen as government explores creating a biodigester system in the province.
“We are looking at a model of a biodigester that will digest animal waste, seafood waste and other food waste that possibly could power Borden-Carleton, we’ll say,” Thompson said during question period, referencing the town of just under 800 residents at the foot of the Confederation Bridge.
“We’re looking at a plant that’s just started up in Winnipeg.… We already did the numbers [and] it will pay for itself. I think that’s a real positive look at the industry.”
A biodigester is an airtight system that takes animal waste — in this instance, Thompson said, a dead cattle’s spine and brains — and breaks it down into a gas that generates heat and energy.
P.E.I. currently trucks that waste to a biodigester in Quebec because of risks associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as mad cow disease. That disease, which is fatal to cattle and attacks their nervous system, can grow in specific tissues like the spinal cord and brain.
Bruce Andrews, president of Atlantic Beef Products in Albany, P.E.I., told CBC News that the company spends “several hundred thousand dollars” each year to send that waste to Quebec.
“Beef packers in other regions have alternatives such as land burial or closer proximity to rendering facilities which creates a competitive advantage,” Andrews said in a statement.
“The method that has shown the most promise is a Rapid Organic Converter (ROC).… A ROC can create a positive byproduct in the form of energy or electricity while reducing trucking and disposal costs and reducing green house gases.”
Thompson said P.E.I. does not bury its dead cattle, or deadstock, because of risks to the Island’s groundwater. He did hint that the future site of a biodigester would make the most sense at or near Atlantic Beef Products.
The government even did some extra testing by sending dead lobsters to another biodigester facility in Alberta — and it worked.
“When it arrived, they couldn’t believe the smell of the lobster products when it got out to Alberta for their biodigester and it found out that it does work out in the mixture,” Thompson said.
“We did a feasibility study here as well to see if it will work here, and it will.”
Thompson said it may take a couple of years to create that biodigestor in P.E.I.
