WPF Bio-Gen ______
WPF Bio-Gen
Business Plan for Poultry Manure
And Poultry Processing Wastes to be
Used in a Biodigester
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Mission Statement
WPF Bio-Gen is dedicated to providing an economically effective energy source while improving environmental conditions. WPF Bio-Gen plans to capitalize on the use of poultry byproducts to become self-sufficient in electricity and heat generation while improving the quality of sewer water and efficiency of manure removal. WPF Bio-Gen will strive to profit from the production of heat and electricity to decrease overhead within the operation, at the same time increasing the value of materials, which were previously disposed of at a cost, and increasing their contribution to the rural economy and economic development.
1.2 WPF
Wynyard Poultry Farms (WPF) is owned and operated by Ted Baas. The farm was originally built in 1962 and currently produces 1.5 million broilers per year. Mr. Baas worked for this operation for ten years before buying it in 1998. In addition to WPF, Mr. Baas also manages a farmer owned co-op broiler operation adjacent to WPF property. This brings the operation total production capacity of 2.3 million birds per year. Mr. Baas is continually looking for ways to manage costs and increase the profitability of his operation.
Currently the broiler barns that are in use are heated by forced air furnaces that run on natural gas. In addition, electricity is needed to run the ventilation fans in the barn and lighting on the farm.
Manure, straw and other waste materials are disposed of, at a cost to the farm, on the fields of neighboring farmers or through a rendering facility in conjunction with Lilydale Foods of Wynyard. It is this waste material that has the potential to provide the energy needs of WPF.
1.3 Biodigestion
A biodigester is any containment facility that is capable of breaking down organic material through fermentation to create new by-products of which one is methane (Hills and Ravishanker, 1984). Methane gas created from the waste material can then be used as fuel for heating or the generation of electricity. WPF hopes to make methane gas out of manure, straw, town sewage, hatchery losses, and mortality losses from the broiler barns. The methane will be used to create heat, through the use of a boiler, for the barns in the winter. The excess methane, in the summer, will be used to produce electricity. There is also the potential to contribute processing wastes, from either a newly constructed facility by WPF or from the Lilydale plant, into the biodigestion processes which could significantly increase the production of the biodigester with minimal additional infrastructural changes to the system.
Biodigester technology is relatively untested in cold climates such as Saskatchewan (pers. comm. Clay Sparks). It will therefore be necessary to work closely with technological and engineering firms that are familiar with the environment.
1.4 Goals
1.4.1 Short Term
The purpose of this project is to cut down the costs of WPF. WPF hopes to cut down on heating costs due to the price of natural gas and the ever increasing potential for prices to continue to rise ( If enough net energy can be captured in the system, electricity will be produced to supply WPF needs, then the surplus will be sold. At the moment WPF is paying local farmers to spread the manure on their land. If this expense can be converted into a cost saving venture with a reasonable return on investment it would be a huge benefit to WPF.
1.4.2 Long Term
Long term plans at WPF include both vertical and horizontal integration through new business ventures. These include a facility capable of processing the birds they are producing, which would produce an additional waste stream capable of being used in the biodigester as well as spin off enterprises that may incorporate some of the byproducts of the biodigester. One possibility may include a greenhouse to use up byproduct manure and water. This creates the opportunity for a fully integrated Holistic Farming operation (Shih, 1993) which is, to be able, to be self sustaining and value added.
2.0 Overview
2.1 Industry
The poultry industry in Saskatchewan produced 34 million kilograms of chicken in 2001-2002 and has the room to expand significantly if industry problems are corrected ( In Saskatchewan WPF makes up 12% of the total poultry meat production making them the largest private producer in the province.
2.2 Environmental Impact
As the industry continues to expand, more focus and attention will be paid to it and other intensive livestock operations and there effect on the environment. The intensive and large-scale production of food animals and animal products has generated an enormous waste disposal problem for the animal industry. These wastes, which include animal excreta, mortalities, hair, feathers, and processing wastes, are largely organic materials and are convertible to useful resources (Shih, 1993). Even though poultry litter has great potential as sources of fertilizer, energy, and feed, it is most often viewed as an important source of pollutants in surface and ground water (King, 1996). These large quantities of poultry manure production pose serious socio-economic problems, the most prominent of which is the protection of our environment and our environmental resources (
2.3 Potential Benefits
“Animal wastes were regarded as valuable fertilizer wastes 95 years ago. With the advent of intensive animal production systems, the wastes were regarded as pollutants and nuisances. During the last decade or two the wastes have again been recognized as valuable if they are managed properly” (Fontenot et al, 1983). Anaerobic fermentation has been shown to not only generate combustible fuel but it also prevents pollution, provides a nutritionally rich sludge usable as fertilizer (El-Shinnawi et al, 1989), provide solid residues that are usable as feedstuffs, and has been shown to destroy pathogenic organisms thus protecting environmental health (Shih, 1993).
The arrival of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 has changed corporate thinking towards greenhouse emissions. New emphasis will be placed on technology to reduce greenhouse gases and create carbon sinks. Monetary penalties will be placed on companies who continue to produce carbon while companies that decrease their greenhouse emissions will potentially be rewarded. This reward will come in the form of carbon credits which the company will be able to sell. As of now, a value is yet to be determined for these carbon credits but they could represent significant financial advantage to those companies which work to decrease greenhouse emissions. (
3.0 Methodology
This project will discuss in detail the operations of the new facility, which will include detailed plans for the yard and building at the proposed site. Also within the operations plan, there will be research on different types of biodigesters. This biodigester will also follow in accordance with the laws and regulations that the town and province has set. The human resources plan will go into detail about who will be responsible for the new facility and the people who will be employed within it, as well as the costs for hiring and training the new employee(s). The marketing plan will include possible marketing options for the by-products of the biodigester, as well as look at the current trends in prices for gas and manure. The marketing plan will also discuss possible sources of revenue after the setup of the biodigester (greenhouses) The financial plan will include start-up costs, financing options, analyzing financial benefits/downfalls and a ten year projection of the finances.
4.0 Operations Plan
4.1 Location
4.1.1 Considerations
With the start up of any new business venture the location has to be considered. The proximity to raw materials that the business will require to run as well as its distance to the buyer of the end products can be vital to the success or failure of the entity. In the case of WPF Bio-Gen, it is therefore necessary that the operation be located close to Wynyard Poultry Farms. This is the only logical location as it will allow for minimal transportation costs of the raw manure and a short distance for the resultant energy that is produced to be transferred.
Another consideration is the space required for development of the facility. A sufficient site size will be necessary in order to provide manure storage, handling, and processing, as well as the biodigester buildings, and any end product processing that will be needed.
4.1.2 Building Layout and Site Plan
Figure 2 represents a layout of the entire site at Wynyard Poultry Farms (WPF) and the location of the biodigester relative to it. This diagram shows the relative distances of the poultry barns from the biodigester and the location of the town of Wynyard’s sewer line.
Figure 1- Site Map of WPF and proposed location of WPF Bio-Gen
Representation of the biodigester system is seen in Figure 2. This diagram shows the entire system designed by ClearGreen Biotechnologies and the components that it entails. The major system components will be constructed on site and will be built outside with no exterior building to house them. This system has been designed to be operated in the Saskatchewan climate and is the only technology that has been used here. The components necessary for nutrient extraction of the digested slurry will be housed in a building of their own. The individual components of the biodigester system will be explained in greater detail in section 4.2 under equipment.
Figure 2-Major Components of Biodigester..
Figure 3 shows the site layout and the orientation of the Clear-Green system as adapted for WPF Bio-Gen. The additional components that have been added are required because of the change to poultry manure rather than hog manure, for which the system was designed. The poultry manure requires additional handling and storage concerns in order to make the product usable.
Figure 3-WPF Bio-Gen site layout ......
4.2 Equipment
4.2.1 Storage
Storage is necessary in order to keep a supply of fermentable organic material to feed the biodigester. Because the poultry barns are cleaned out once per growing cycle it is necessary to have enough storage capacity for the total manure output from one cycle. In order to accomplish this it will be necessary to construct a building to keep the manure out of the elements and free of debris. Construction of a 40ft x 60ft building will be done to achieve this. The building will be manufactured with a 6 inch concrete floor in order to carry the load that will be on it and 10ft high 1ft thick concrete walls on three sides. In order to have a 16ft high ceiling a 6ft wall will be constructed of wood and tin sheeting on top of the concrete wall. When the barns are cleaned out at the end of each cycle the entire manure production will be stockpiled in this storage shed to be used over the 56 day period until it can be filled again. On the north-east end of the storage shed will be a large gravity bin that will be able to be filled with one or two days worth of product.
4.2.2 Processing
The materials to be used in the biodigester will be mostly manure that is removed from the poultry barns. In addition to this there will be the bedding material from the barns, death loss, hatchery waste, and the processing waste from Lillydale Foods in Wynyard. The waste streams from Lillydale will be constantly produced and will be trucked in by Lillydale to WPF Bio-Gen and added to the biodigester. Because of the inconsistent nature of all these products it will be necessary to process them to a uniform particle size. This will also aid in the biodigestion of the material by increasing the surface area to be fermented by bacteria. A large hammer mill will be used to do this. Purchased from Wholberg Industries in Saskatoon, Sk the hammer mill will be capable of processing 1.5-2.0 tonnes of product per hour.
4.2.3 Pre-mixing
In order for the material to be digested it is necessary for it to flow through the system and for bacteria to act on the material. Water will be added in the pre-mixing stage to a level of 10% solids. The water for the biodigester will come from two sources. As much water as possible, will be recycled from the nutrient separation process and added back to the pre-mixing tank. This will recuperate the energy that has been put into heating the water up in order to start the digestion process. Not all of the water can be recycled because some is needed in the fertilizer products. Additional water will be taken from the town of Wynyard’s sewage system and be drawn from the line adjacent to WPF Bio-Gen. This will allow for a free source of water as well as the potential to capitalize on the availability of any human wastes that can be fermented in the biodigestion process. The use of this water supply needs to be monitored because users of this sewer line include Wynyard Union Hospital and Lilydale Foods which are both users of antimicrobial agents that can upset the digestive bacteria and interrupt the process. Because of the dilution factor of any of these agents it is not anticipated that this will be a problem.
At the pre-mixing stage the temperature of the material needs also to be heated up to around 37oC in order to achieve optimal digestion. This will be done through heat produced by biogas from the digester as well as the recycling of water back to the pre-mixing stage once the digestion process has been completed.
4.2.4 Biodigester
The biodigester is the primary site for the majority of the fermentation of organic material. In this system the tank is a 48ft tall structure that is 48ft in diameter. It is made from an oxygen proof surface that is steel with a glass surface fused to the inside. The outside will be covered with 6 inches of insulative material that will help to maintain fermentative temperatures at a steady level. A large paddle agitator rotates inside the tank to keep the slurry mixing and through fluid dynamics moves the digested material up to the top of the tank to flow off and move into the next tank. Any biogas that is produced in this tank comes off the top and is piped into the gas storage in the next tank.
4.2.5 Dual Purpose Tank
The dual purpose tank is named so because it serves two functions as both gas storage and secondary digestion. The dual purpose tank is a concrete structure that is 28ft tall with the bottom third in the ground the middle third with sloped dirt around it and the top third exposed. The tank is filled with the material that comes out of the biodigester and further gas production is compiled along with the gas that comes from the biodigester. The biogas is stored in a large neoprene bladder that sits on top of the dual purpose tank. Between the bladder and the concrete is a layer of tamarak wood that is a host for sulfanogenic bacteria that cleave the free sulfur out of the atmosphere to prevent sulfur being present in the biogas. From the biogas storage bladder it then can be used in both the power generator and/or the boiler unit.
4.2.6 Energy Capture Units
The biogas can be used in place of natural gas in either a turbine generator or a pressure boiler in order to produce energy. In the case of WPF Bio-Gen the gas production will be used to fire a boiler in order to produce electricity. Heat from this process will be recovered and piped to the poultry barns for heating. Electricity that is generated will be sold to WPF to be used in the barns, sold to the town of Wynyard, or sold to Sask Power for the Green Power program.
4.2.7 Technical Building
The majority of the system will be automated and will require a building to house the computer equipment. This will be a simple 20ft x 20ft building with sufficient room for an office and meeting room as well.
4.2.8 Membrane Separation
Once the digestion process is complete the digested slurry will be separated in to elemental components that will allow for the sale of value added products. The addition of membrane separation, filtration, and reverse osmosis equipment will be used to separate the products into elemental fertilizer components. A 10% nitrogen solution and a 4% phosphorous and 4% potassium solution will be produced and stored to be sold for liquid fertilizer application. The two products could also be blended into a fertilizer product containing all three elements of whatever proportion the customer may want. This could be done easily at the plant at time of delivery. Once the water was been filtered through this system it is once again potable and could be returned back into the town drinking system, used for irrigation, or a variety of other uses.
4.3 Physical Product Flow
Figure 4-Physical product flow