The Lethbridge Alberta Biogas facility is undergoing a $7 million expansion. The expansion will introduce the company into the natural gas market by allowing biogas to be purified into pipeline-grade biomethane. With the expansion it will soon be able to supply renewable natural gas to the Lethbridge area and also expand into the British Columbia market.
The expansion will introduce Lethbridge Biogas into the natural gas market, by allowing for the plant’s biogas to be purified into pipeline-grade biomethane, (renewable natural gas or RNG), which will be injected into ATCO’s natural gas grid. This carbon-neutral biomethane will also be supplied to FortisBC under a long-term supply agreement by mid-2021. Once the expansion is complete, Lethbridge Biogas will have the first full-scale, commercial renewable natural gas application in Alberta.
“This expansion at our Lethbridge Biogas facility is another significant milestone in the history of our project,” says Lethbridge Biogas Director of Operations Stefan Michalski. “It is the result of dedication and very hard work from our team over many, many years to get our business established, not only in the Lethbridge area but beyond in the Canadian and North American context. A lot of players in the RNG market were interested to become part of this expansion, as RNG has become a highly sought-after commodity to reduce the carbon footprint in the natural gas supply chain.”
Feedstock
The Lethbridge biogas/cogeneration plant processes organic residues such as agricultural manures and food processing by-products. The facility is currently able to process the following categories of organic materials:
- Liquid & solid manures from Intensive Livestock Operations (beef, dairy, hog & poultry etc.)
- Fats, Oil & Greases (FOG) from slaughterhouses, meat packing plants, canneries, restaurants, food processors, cafeterias & grocery stores
- Food processing residues (oils seeds, grains, fruit & vegetables, corn, beet, potato, dairy products, alcohol, etc.)
- Aerobic sludges from non-municipal wastewater treatment & industrial process water
- Pet food residues
- Separated kitchen & market residues from food processors, bakeries, pizza parlours, restaurants, cafeterias, grocery stores, hospitals, universities, households
- Paunch manure from meat packing plants
- Non-wood containing garden & horticultural residues from greenhouses, garden centers, flower shops, municipalities, households
- Glycerol from industrial biodiesel production
- Silage from farm operations (corn, grain, grass etc.)
- Pulp & paper sludges from paper mills
- Animal by-products from slaughterhouses and packing plants and animal carcasses from intensive livestock operations incl. Specified Risk Material (SRM)
History of the Facility
In 2013 Lethbridge Biogas LP officially opened the largest anaerobic digester/co-generation facility in Canada at the time. Designed and built by PlanET Biogas, the $30 million facility has a generating capacity of 2.8 MW – enough to power 2,800 homes. It was built such that it has the capacity to expand to produce as much as 4.2 MW in the future with the addition of new generating units.
