Finnish-Swiss biotechnology company Ductor will build three new biofertiliser-biogas facilities in the Polish region of Zachodniopomorskie, about 100 kilometres off the coast of the Baltic Sea, thus helping Poland to move towards a circular economy.
The plants will use 100 per cent poultry waste to create two separate products, renewable electricity and organic nitrogen fertiliser. This circular economy model will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from both the energy and agriculture sectors. Two of the new plants will have installed capacity of 0.5 megawatts (MW) and the third will be 1 MW. All three will be operational in 2021.
“We opened our first operational biofertiliser-biogas facilities in Mexico at the end of last year and we are now pleased to announce our next European facilities in Poland,” commented Ari Ketola, founder and CEO of Ductor. “These plants will be close to the Baltic Sea where they will decrease the need for coal-based energy, prevent nutrient runoff into the Baltic Sea, and replace chemical fertiliser with recycled nutrients. Strong support from environmentally-oriented local authorities helped make this project possible, and I’m very grateful for that.”
The three facilities will use 50,000 tons or about 1 per cent of the total poultry manure produced in Poland each year. Ductor currently has similar projects underway, including five to ten new facilities in Poland and a solid portfolio of projects under development in Europe and the Americas.
During the last 40 years, over 30 per cent of the world’s arable land has become unproductive, putting in danger future human food security and environmental quality. Ductor’s fermentation technology converts chicken manure into efficient organic fertiliser useful to large-scale farming and biogas in the form of biomethane to replace fossil fuel energy. Healthier soils and ecological farming also contribute to less polluted waters.