A demonstration-scale plant to convert Alberta feedlot waste to biogas has picked up a federal loan for expansion.
The Community Adjustment Fund (CAF) has granted Growing Power Hairy Hill a repayable $4.143 million investment for the next steps in its biogas project.
“This investment will help expand the technology being used in this project, which was developed here in Alberta and has proven the ability to digest feedlot manure reliably and at a large scale,” Shane Chrapko, CEO of Growing Power Hairy Hill, said in the government’s release Friday.
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Expansion of the existing demonstration-scale biogas plant at Hairy Hill, about 100 km northeast of Edmonton, will be the first phase in developing a “larger integrated bio-refinery capable of producing products such as green power, bio-fertilizer and fuel ethanol,” the government said.
The project includes building new biogas capacity, commercializing technology and installing equipment to convert animal waste to methane, which in turn will fuel two generators for producing electricity.
The biogas facility will largely power the ethanol refinery to be developed as part of the second phase of the initiative, the government said.
The facility will also benefit the environment “by providing a value-added solution for the disposal of feedlot waste,” the government said.
The CAF is a two-year, $1 billion federal program supporting projects that create or maintain jobs in what are traditionally considered one-industry communities. Western Canada gets $306 million, delivered via Western Economic Diversification (WD).
The CAF requires that approved projects be completed by March 31, 2011 “with no requirement for continued support.”
Counting the CAF loan, the Hairy Hill project has so far leveraged a total of $14.155 million in support from various sources.
