Novel biogas technology for piggeries

Opportunity for

• Biogas and environmental engineers interested in developing new products and services
• Energy utilities /providers developing new products and services
• Primary producer and retail food corporates interested in reducing carbon footprint

Opportunity description

Industry challenge: Biogas, the capture of methane from effluent ponds, has been of interest to the pig industry for many years. It is currently a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the burning (flaring) of the gas or burning gas to generate heat and power for use on-farm. To date, biogas production has only been feasible for large piggeries (> 1000 sows) due to the capital required and the associated long payback periods. There is a need for more efficient systems that can be used in smaller piggeries as well as systems that allow for biogas production to fluctuate based on raw material volumes and / or energy output requirements.

Current opportunity: Australian Pork (APL) and University of Southern Queensland (USQ) have been developing biogas approaches using in-ground anerobic digestion of piggery litter and large-scale biogas to biomethane upgrading. Proof of concept data is demonstrating both technical and economic feasibility for smaller scale systems and biogas systems that respond to raw material and energy needs. Opportunity exists for biogas, energy or engineering companies interested in developing new biogas products and services.

Other opportunities: Focusing on smaller scale and scalable biogas production provides opportunities to expand the technology into other biogas production systems using other manures or crop residue feedstocks.