Page 8 - APN July 2017

Algae work to reduce piggery greenhouse gas emissions
PORK CRC Program 4 ‘Carbon conscious nutrient inputs and out- puts’ conducts research to improve the sus- tainability of the pork industry, specifically to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to about 1kg CO2 equivalent/kg pork produced.
An outcome of the program has been the increasing adoption of covered anaerobic la- goons by Australian pork producers to man- age greenhouse gas emissions and recover the methane from biogas for energy production.
The biogas also con- tains CO2.
Algal biomass pro- duced in high-rate algal ponds treating piggery wastewater can remove CO2 from the slurry and potentially from the biogas, contributing to GHG mitigation.
The biomass is also an additional source of energy, which could be released via anaerobic digestion or co-digestion with pig slurry.
While other wastes such as industrial organ- ic wastes, fruit, vegeta- bles and olive wastes are commonly co-digested,
there have been limited studies on the digestion of algal biomass as a sole substrate or co-di- gested with other wastes such as pig slurry.
Flinders University re- search higher degree stu- dent Ryan Cheng’s Pork CRC supported PhD thesis ‘Exploitation of wastewater grown micro- algae for the production of biogas’ investigated the effect of CO2 addition on algal growth and methane production from the di- gestion of algae and their co-digestion with other liquid wastes including pig slurry.
Dr Cheng, who has a Bachelor of Medical Science with majors in microbiology, neurosci- ence and physiology and a Bachelor of Science (Honours), both from South Australia’s Flin- ders University, was re- cently awarded his doc- torate.
According to his PhD supervisor Prof Howard Fallowfield, his results question if adding CO2 enhances algal pro- duction in all types of wastewater.
In Dr Cheng’s PhD re-
search, a laboratory ap- proach was used to ex- amine the effect of the addition of CO2 on the growth of microalgae in wastewaters of three different strengths deter- mined by their biochem- ical oxygen demand.
“Results demonstrated that adding CO2 did not increase biomass pro- duction in wastewaters rich in organic carbon, since the CO2 produced by bacterial minerali- sation adequately sup- ported optimal biomass production,” Dr Cheng said.
Co-digestion of pig slurry with algal bio- mass resulted in a slight- ly higher methane yield.
“My research ulti- mately provided a better understanding of how to achieve integration of algae and wastewater treatment by determin- ing if it is necessary to supply external CO2 and evaluating the out- come of anaerobic co- digestion of algal bio- mass with pig slurry or waste-activated sludge,” Dr Cheng said.
www.porkcrc.com.au
Dr Ryan Cheng
LVP’s Dean Romaniello in the boning room with Catholic Agricultural College Bindoon students.
Agricultural students peruse pork processing the Wooroloo way
AVID readers of this column (hello, is any- one out there?) will re- call back in April that I commented on how de- lighted I was to see sec- ondary school students at the West Australian Pork Producers Associa- tion’s 2017 Pig Day Out at Technology Park.
I went on to write that despite some agenda top- ics being a little bland for mid-teens, the Catho- lic Agricultural College Bindoon students looked engaged.
Credit goes to former WA PPA president Steve Martin’s daughter Stacey Carter, who now teaches at Bindoon, and Brett Nel- son, one of the college’s three Aboriginal teacher’s assistants, who accompa- nied the students, some indigenous, from Bindoon for the day.
Anyway, a few months on and Stacey has since taken some Bindoon kids to visit Craig Mostyn Group’s Linley Valley Pork processing works at Wooroloo.
Apparently they arrived on a cold morning and with a degree of appre- hension, as one does when visiting an abattoir.
However, the apprehen- sion quickly turned to laughter as they dressed into the required protec- tive biosecurity clothing, including hairnets, boo- ties and coats.
First up was the bon- ing room, where they saw sides of meat, lots of dif- ferent cuts for different markets, offal (including hearts with valves des- tined for medical use) and lots of evidence of the traceability the industry demands.
Cant Comment by BRENDON CANT
As they worked their way backwards through the pro- cess, they saw more evi- dence of technology.
According to feedback from Stacey, some of the students felt it was quite a confronting excursion, but all were impressed with the advanced technol- ogy and how the system f lowed.
Importantly, they could take home an understand-
ing of the efforts produc- ers and processors go to so that safe, tasty and con- sistent quality pork can make its way from gate to plate.
I understand LVP cur- rently processes about 14,000 pigs per week on one shift, which to- day includes a significant number of free range pigs (about 25 percent of pigs in WA are free range).
LVP has always em- phasised animal welfare, hence there is no prodding on site, no receival of pigs during very hot weather (must arrive early morn- ing or at night) and they must have access to water at all times.
LVP bones about 1800 pigs a day over two shifts and this includes service boning for supermarkets.
A Marel boning system ensures traceability from paddock to plate and posi- tive OH&S outcomes.
I understand about two- thirds of pigs destined for LVP come from Craig Mostyn farms.
One of those, a 5000- sow free range breeder farm near Albany on WA’s south coast, is believed to be the largest of its kind in Australia.
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Page 8 – Australian Pork Newspaper, July 2017
www.porknews.com.au
LVP’s Dean Romaniello outlined the Linley Valley Pork process to Catholic Agricultural College Bindoon students.
Catholic Agricultural College Bindoon students Teki Hart, Harvey Wilkins, Hope Patterson and Jess King enjoyed their Linley Valley visit.