D-Day: Digesting Biowaste in 24 Hours

Globally biowaste presents one of the waste industry's greatest challenges. Left unchecked it is a source of greenhouse gases and foul odours. Treated correctly it can hardly be considered 'waste' at all. A potential breakthrough claims to transform a wide range of biowastes into high quality fertiliser in just 24 hours. by Ben Messenger Gene Pitney may have sung that he's only 24 hours from Tulsa. Singing a similar line that he's only 24 hours from valuable soil from biowaste probably wouldn't have sold as many records. Indeed, taking agricultural or industrial biowaste and processing it into a valuable soil amendment in the same time period may also sound like the stuff of fiction. Customers are shown the process at a plant in Singapore However, using an aerobic digestion process, accelerated with the use of a proprietary enzyme and digester, that is exactly what one small Singapore-based company claims to be capable of doing. Biomax Technologies was founded in 2009 following a five-year period of research and development by its founders into how to accelerate the conversion of biowaste into fertiliser. The first stage in the company's history involved the development of a fully functioning prototype, the successful completion of which was swiftly followed by patent applications, which are due to be granted later this year. Development According to Anton Wibowo, green solutions engineer at Biomax Technologies, at the beginning the team set about identifying if it would even be possible to cut short the fermentation time with the utilisation of carefully selected micro-organisms and still get a very good end product. "We had a general direction in terms of what strains of bacteria we should be looking at, and then we had to collect the bacteria and find a way to cultivate them and mix them to ensure that they are not competing with one another. We then had to design the digester so that the Bm1 Enzyme could work perfectly inside of it on a big scale. Conditions are easy to create at lab scale, but not at the industrial scale, particularly when it comes to microbes. They are very sensitive to the environment around them," he explains. The Bm1 Enzyme, which Wibowo is keen to stress was developed using only naturally occurring micro-organisms with no genetic modification, is produced in the company's labs and distributed in powdered form. The powder can then be mixed with organic waste within the digester, where the micro-organisms will be reactivated and begin breaking down complex molecules at hi-speed, into a simple substance that is readily available for plants to use as food. The enzyme also has the added advantage of being able to handle industrial biowastes that are often difficult to compost due to the presence of grease and sometimes a high amount of salt, which inhibits bacterial activity and produces bad smells. The system itself requires between 200m2 and 800m2 for installation and the digester is currently being manufactured exclusively for Biomax in Korea, while the Bm1 Enzyme is being produced in Singapore. To process organic waste from animals or plants in 24 hours it is first placed into a Biomax Rapid Thermophilic Digester, which is currently available in three sizes of 4000 litres, 22,000 litres and 80,000 litres. The system is modular, so if more capacity is required multiple digesters can be installed and run as required. The Process Certain organic wastes however do need pre-treatment prior to entering the digester. For example, in South East Asia the palm oil industry is substantial and generates a lot of waste, largely the ends of branches. To cope with this type of organic waste the Biomax system requires it first to be crushed. Once in the digester, the company's Bm1 Enzyme is added in the ratio of 1kg per tonne of waste and the temperature is raised to 80°C. Wibowo explains that there are two functions to this temperature rise. Firstly it eliminates all pathogens and harmful bacteria present in the waste, and secondly it activates the thermophilic (heat loving) enzyme, which gets to work breaking down the waste. The proprietary enzyme contains several strains of bacteria that exhibit abilities to decompose organic matter under a high temperature environment. This shortens the fermentation time. After 24 hours the output from the process is a fertiliser that is available for immediate use. In the digester an enzyme is added at a ratio of 1kg per tonne of waste and the temperature is raised to 80 degrees celsius For Biomax, a significant part of its business model lays not only in supplying the digester hardware itself, but in the continued supply of the Bm1 Enzyme, crucial to the systems' function, to its customers. In addition to accelerating the decomposition of the organic waste in the digester, once the waste has passed through the process the enzyme begins its second roll as an active agent within the fertiliser, where it is able to adjust to the soil pH and balance its nutrients to prevent common diseases. "In South East Asia we have got approval from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and the technology is now being used in Australia and the U.S.," adds Wibowo. Biomax claims that starting with a wide variety of organic wastes, after just 24 hours it can produce a final product that is a high-nutrient, odourless organic fertiliser that is pathogen and pest-free. The firm says this improves organic content water holding capacity and the cation exchange capacity of the soil. As a result, the company adds that plants and crops will have not only a higher yield, but also a natural resistance to pests. At the same time the use of such soil amendment reduces the requirement for artificial fertiliser. But there are other systems that can treat organic waste to produce such products, albeit perhaps not in 24 hours, such as Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and traditional composting methods. So how does the system compare? "In terms of cost, setting up a plant that utilises our technology would require a medium capital investment of around half a million U.S. dollars for ten tonnes of fertiliser per day, which would equate to fifteen tonnes of waste treatment per day. If you compare with AD you are looking at a much faster return on investment. Most of our customers are looking at a return on investment of under two years," says Wibowo. Markets The system is relatively new to market and Wibowo explains that on hearing the 24 hour claims the first reaction is often one of incredulity or disbelief. The company has overcome this by taking customers to its own demonstration facility in Singapore to witness the process for themselves, and even invites them to bring a sample of their own waste along for a trial run. According to Wibowo, because of more stringent environmental regulation the company's biggest revenue so far has come from developed countries such as Australia, the U.S and even Europe. However, in the longer term he is confident that the Singapore based company's home continent will become a significant market for its technology. "Asia is picking up, but there are still a lot of industrial players that think they can just dump their waste without being caught and there is not enough regulation to control that. But in the next three to five years I would expect Asia to be our biggest market," he adds. Conclusion Traditional composting methods take around six months to process plantation waste due to its generally fibrous nature. While AD can be significantly faster, and offers the advantage of producing valuable biogas in addition to fertiliser, many systems can treat only a narrow optimal range of feedstocks, which can also require greater additional pre-treatment. The Biomax system of accelerating aerobic digestion through the introduction of carefully selected and cultured micro-organisms seems to offer a genuine breakthrough in terms of rapidly treating biowastes at the point of production. It would appear then that Biomax may just have a winning formula on its hands, literally, but as with all new technologies the market can be fickle, and only time will tell if biowaste producers are ready for 'D-Day'. Ben Messenger is managing editor of Waste Management World e-mail: benm@pennwell.com Read More Asian Development Bank's Rural Biogas Project a Hit in China A $33 million loan from the Asian Development Bank has resulted in a successful project to increase the use of biogas from waste as a viable source of renewable energy in rural China. 2MW Biogas from Palm Oil Waste Project in Malaysia Renewable energy developer, Camco International is to build its first waste to biogas facility in Malaysia that will waste from the palm oil industry. Successful Pilot Recovers Nutrients and Energy from Agricultural Wastes Agricultural waste specialist, Bion Environmental Technologies, has had positive results at its advanced separation technology pilot program at its livestock waste treatment facility in Pennsylvania. Free Magazine Subscription Free Email Newsletter