High Fuel Cost Stimulate Interest in Composting

CANADA - The Niverville, Manitoba base Puratone Corporation reports increasing fuel costs are stimulating new interest in composting for the disposal of livestock mortalities, writes Bruce Cochrane.
calendar icon 27 June 2008
clock icon 3 minute read

The Biovator, developed by the Puratone Corporation, consists of a rotating four foot diameter drum that mixes livestock mortalities with wood shavings while introducing oxygen to speed up composting.

Shawn Compton, the sales and marketing manager with Puratone's Biovator Division, says the technology continues to generate interest.

Shawn Compton-Puratone Corporation

The Biovator was developed for the hog industry and, as we're all aware, the hog industry is in a bit of a downturn right now which has slowed a bit of the momentum on the switch over from other alternative methods of disposal.

However the larger integrators that are still out there are carefully examining their options.

The big driver right now is the price of fuel for incineration which a lot of producers are still doing.

That's really driving those producers to take a look at other alternatives and in-vessel composting is a very economical method when you compare it to the high fuel prices these days.

We actually had an interesting little study done in North Carolina.

It was an energy audit for the USDA, part of their renewable energy and energy efficiency program that was done by a professional engineer in the state of North Carolina.

It showed a 97 percent energy saving for in-vessel composting versus incineration.

The major energy component in the Biovator is the electrical use, which takes very little power to turn.

The major energy source for incineration is the fuel and, at the price of fuel these days it adds up quite substantially, so it puts a positive spin on the composting.


Compton adds the Biovator produces a useful nutrient rich pathogen free product that can be land applied.

He notes incineration produces ash, which can also be applied to the land but which contains no nutrient value.

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