Biotechna Pilot Plant Under Construction

Biotechna Environmental Technologies Corporation has begun construction on a pilot plant for Photosynthetic Purification, the company's proprietary waste treatment process. The plant, which is being built on a Connecticut hog farm, represents a 50:1 scale-up of an existing prototype. Biotechna, together with its co-developer Bricar, will use this pilot plant to assess life cycle costs involved when full-scale Photosynthetic Purification Systems are ready to come on line.

Photosynthetic Purification uses photosynthetic bacteria and algae to treat high concentration animal waste streams. These organisms, or "Biomass", use animal wastes in much the same way plants use fertilizers. Early tests indicate that this type of Biomass has a nutritional value equivalent to that of soy protein used in animal feeds. The Biomass is estimated to have a net worth of approximately $200 (Canadian) per ton as an animal feed supplement.

Biotechna has been developing its Photosynthetic Purification Process since the early 1990s. The company originally developed the process using its patented BioCoil photobioreactor on the liquid waste stream from a thermophilic anaerobic digester used to treat poultry waste.

In 1995, the company shifted its focus toward the development of an improved Photosynthetic Purification system, which would eliminate the need for the supplemental anaerobic digester. A second-generation, bench-scale reactor was specifically developed to treat raw waste from industrial hog farms. For more than eighteen months, this prototype has run successfully on swine waste, thereby giving rise to the design of the pilot plant.

Edited by Beth Brindle

For more information contact: JF Startari, president and chief executive officer, Biotechna Environmental Technologies Corporation, Alberta, Canada. Tel: 888-470-7329.