Manure Manager

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Cargill signs ‘poultry-manure-to-energy’ deal with BHSL


August 27, 2015  by Press release

 

Aug. 27, 2015, Herefordshire, UK – Cargill’s European poultry business has signed a 20-year agreement to convert poultry manure to energy with technology from BHSL.

The Irish agri-tech company will build a one mega watt plant on Cargill’s Shobdon and Hangar poultry farm. The plant will use some 3,500 tonnes of poultry litter each year to generate heat and electricity. The 1,000 m2 Approved Energy Centre and fuel store will contain the BHSL Fluidised Bed Combustion (FBC) plant, toploaders, and a Heliex electricity generation plant.

A three kilometer district heating network and heaters for 13 poultry houses will also be installed.

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John Reed, agriculture director with Cargill Meats Europe, said a number of factors led to the selection of BHSL for this project, including: the ability to operate a sustainable on-farm energy supply; improved biosecurity on and off farm as a result of the enclosed manure handling system; enhanced environmental conditions providing performance and bird welfare benefits; and environmental benefits including low carbon production, reduced ammonia emissions and ground water protection.

The commissioning and operation of the new BHSL energy centre will be approved and regulated by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

BHSL championed the development of the new rules for on-farm combustion of poultry manure at European Commission level, in close collaboration with the UK and Irish governments. The resulting rules reclassified poultry manure as a valuable animal by-product for on-farm combustion, which meets emissions animal health and human health standards.

BHSL technology is currently the only approved system under the new European regulations EU 592/2014, which became law in July 2014.

BHSL also recently secured its first contract in the United States with the Department of Agriculture in Maryland, which is tackling water quality challenges in the Chesapeake Bay area.

 

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