Dive summary:
- A research group out of Alberta, Canada has received patent approval in the U.S. for a biorefining technology now called BioRefinex, that transforms food and animal waste into useful fertilizer and biogas.
- The process uses materials that would otherwise be considered a disease risk such as meat and bones from animal carcasses, which are responsible for the transfer of sometimes-deadly viruses from animals to humans.
- BioRefinex estimates there are more 14 million tons of suitable material in the U.S. that can be recycled on top of the more than two million tones in Canada.
From the article:
An Alberta-based research group has received U.S. patent approval for a biorefining technology that transforms food and animal waste into nutrient products for fertilizer and biogas.
The "BioRefinex process", a new thermal hydrolysis and fractionation process invented by Dr. Erick Schmidt of Ponoka, Alberta (Alta.), utilizes high pressure and high temperature steam reactors and integrated centrifuges.
Schmidt is confident this process provides an environmentally superior alternative to incineration and landfilling of disease risk materials such as meat and bones from animal carcasses. It also creates economic value from the processed waste. ...
