Australian Bio Fert’s poultry waste to fertiliser plant at Lethbridge gets EPAV approval.
The Environment Protection Authority Victoria has given a works approval to Australian Bio Fert’s poultry waste recycling plant at Lethbridge.
A $25 million plant designed to convert dead chickens and poultry waste into fertiliser is expected be operational by about the middle of next year, having recently gained works approval from the Environmental Protection Authority Victoria.
Australian Bio Fert was now finalising funding for the biorecycling plant before construction began at Lethbridge, near Geelong, in March.
Australian Bio Fert chief executive Mark Frecheville said the EPA granted a works approval in late December.
“That is a significant step forward, which means we can commence the construction process,” Mr Frecheville said.
“It means that they (the EPA) have agreed with the design.”
Mr Frecheville said the company still had to complete an environmental hazard management plan as one of the conditions of the works approval.
He said the company had been working with financiers “for some time” but expected to have the funding in place by March.
“A lot of it is a chicken and egg type thing,” he said.
“Getting a works approval is a significant step forward to securing the funding because it derisks the project.
“We are hoping in the next couple of months to get everything bedded down.
“We are building on a greenfields site, so if it gets wet, there will be a few challenges, such as getting the basic formwork in place.”
The recycling plant used a process called torrefaction, where poultry litter and manure was heated to high temperatures in a confined chamber with little or no oxygen to produce a dry, friable product devoid of harmful bacteria.
This was then blended with lignin, guano, rock phosphate or other nutrients to produce a fertiliser available to farmers.
Australian Bio Fert ran a pilot plant at Maddingly near Bacchus Marsh to prove the concept.
Poultry litter was currently disposed of through landfill, burying it on farms or composting it in the open.
Composting poultry litter posed biosecurity risks from scavenging birds, particularly the transfer of diseases, such as avian flu, from farm to farm.
Mr Frecheville said the poultry industry was under increasing pressure to find solutions to the waste problem from poultry and egg farms.
He said the recycling plant was centred in an egg production region.
“Egg farmers are conscious that the cost of managing these waste streams are increasing,” he said.
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