The biogas plant at the Legazpi City slaughterhouse. (Photo courtesy of Piere dela Peña)
LEGAZPI CITY– Aside from solving the problem on the disposal of slaughtered animals' manure, the local government here has also negated the issue of expensive fuel consumption in running its “AA” abattoir that serves the entire city and its adjacent towns.
This, after the slaughterhouse started using its new biogas digester machine on Saturday, yielding an initial production of methane gas and high-grade organic fertilizers.
The methane gas will be used to boil water needed in the slaughter of animals at the facility.
Mayor Noel Rosal, in an interview on Monday, said the biogas plant is yet another landmark project of the city government that would provide free fuel to the slaughterhouse on a daily basis.
“This project can also produce high-grade organic fertilizers that can be used by the farmers for their daily agricultural activities,” he said.
Rosal said the biogas plant can generate PHP1 million worth of methane gas a year which could also be converted into liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
He said they are eyeing to later on produce three kilos of LPG per day, or 113 tanks a year.
The biogas plant project materialized through a PHP300,000 grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), with the construction works managed by the City Engineering Office (CEO).
The memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the project was signed on June 30, 2020, by Rosal for the city government, and regional director Rommel Serrano for DOST-Bicol.
City Veterinary Officer Dr. Emmanuel Estipona, in a separate interview, said the project is part of the city's solid waste management practices that are seen to mitigate public health hazards and environmental degradation and also reduce green gas house emission.
“The organic fertilizers that it can be produced from the biogas plant would be distributed to the farmers for free as part of the support to the 'Plant, Plant, Plant' program of the government," he added.
Estipona said he is also working on the expansion of the biogas plant for it to be able to use the other waste materials from the slaughterhouse and convert them into gas and fertilizers.
DOST-Albay provincial director Alexis Eligado, for his part, said the Legazpi City "AA" abattoir is the first slaughterhouse in the country to adopt the biogas plant system as solid waste management and diversion program.
Eligado, who also designed the biogas plant, said phase 2 or the planned expansion of the project will focus on the conversion of biogas from thermal energy to electro-mechanical energy to finally produce off-grid electricity.
An "AA" slaughterhouse is one that has received from the National Meat Inspection Service a grade of more than 90 percent for its butchering process, performance of butchers, and the facilities. (PNA)
