Manure and Biosolids Digester / Green Energy Feasibility Study

The Economic Development Committee of Sainte-Anne-de-Prescott will undertake a feasibility study for the constructionof an anaerobic digester to generate energy from locally produced manure and biosolids. This is an innovative solution tothe recently declared provincial Nutrient Management Act (October 2003), which legislates the phasing out of landapplication of residential biosolid septic wastes and manure. The development of a community-scale biodigester willmeet this target without necessitating the expansion of local sewage treatment facilities. It will also reduce the expenseto rural farms and households of compliance with the Act generate renewable energy from what is currently a wastedresource and produce a marketable organic soil fertilizer. In addition to electricity generation, waste heat from thedigester will be used to heat a local greenhouse, thus further increasing economic development opportunities in theTownship. The study will examine the technical, financial and organization issues related to the development of thedigester in order to build a business case for the project. A life cycle analysis will be used to take into account theadditional impacts of transportation and handling of wastes in order to get a potential quantitative impact. An excellentexample of a systems approach, this project is innovative because biodigester technology has been rarely applied inCanada and because of the cooperative ownership business model being considered. Ontario’s new NutrientManagement Act ensures that the results of this study will be highly replicable throughout the province.