Southgate biogas project latest example of a growing re use in municipal organics

Jason Moretto of Envest told Southgate council recently that the company was behind the first privately-owned bioenergy project in Canada.

That project, called Seacliff, is in Leamington, and now has a decade of experience in operations.

Envest is the new owner of the project planned for Dundalk’s Eco-Park, which has been re-branded as Southgate Renewables.

Another biogas project is Bio-En in Elmira, which members of Southgate Council visited in the 2014 to 2018 term, to investigate the impact of the operation.

While the Elmira plant was opposed by residents when it opened, there was no such outcry in 2019 when its tonnage processed was increased to 110k tonnes from 70k tonnes.

Southgate Renewables is permitted for 73k tonnes.

The certificate in Elmira was approved in 2020 to add biogas to the existing production of energy and heat.

There is no storage of the organic feedstock both from agriculture and from municipal organics.

The waste will be trucked inside a negative-air pressure facility, unloaded and the trucks washed before leaving, council heard..

Mr. Moretto told Southgate in the presentation to council on March 16 that Envest looked forward to building a “marquee facility” in Dundalk.

SOUTHGATE RENEWABLES

– intake will be municipal green-bin organics and commercial organics recycling

– commissioning expected in 2023

– More than 200,000 gigajoules per year production of renewable natural gas expected to be produced to connect to Enbridge pipeline

– Remaining product will be licenced and sold as a certified organic fertilizer

– the process is to capture the methane produced by “digesting” the organic waste, cleaning it up and then injecting it into the Enbridge grid.

M.T. Fernandes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, DUNDALK HERALD