Innovation Anthology #20:
The Canadian Prairie is home to millions of cattle – which also means there are mountains of manure to dispose of. That’s why Highland Feeders and the Alberta Research Council have developed a novel alternative to spreading this leftover manure on the land.
Called IMUS, or the Integrated Manure Utilization System, the new approach runs "cowpies" through large anaerobic digesters. That’s where biology takes over. And within a couple of weeks, the manure is broken down into methane gas, water, and nutrients.
Dr. Xaiomei Li is the lead scientist on the IMUS Biogas Project.
XL: We feed that biogas to the cogeneration system and generate electricity and heat. We separate the solid from liquid. We recover the nutrients and put them back with the solid which forms the bio base for the fertilizer. And then we recycle the water.
The feedlot and IMUS plant use about one third of the electricty produced. The rest goes into the Alberta power grid.
This manure ulitzation technology promises to significantly reduce surface and groundwater contamination, feedlot odours and greenhouse gas emissions.
Thanks today to the Alberta Research Council.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER.
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Alberta Research Council
Established as the first provincial research organization in Canada, the Alberta Research Council is 85 years old. The Alberta Research Council (ARC) develops and commercializes technologies to give customers a competitive advantage. A leader in innovation, ARC provides solutions globally to the energy, life sciences, agriculture, environment, forestry and manufacturing sectors.
ARC performs about five per cent of the roughly $1.5 billion in R&D done in Alberta each year, and generates revenues of approximately $84 million per year. ARC operates from five sites across the province in Edmonton, Calgary, Vegreville and Devon and employs more than 600 highly-skilled people.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, the Alberta Research Council was restructured and incorporated into the new provincial agency Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.
Program Date: 2007-03-22