AGM Article
FYI: Here is a (back issue) editorial from the Richmond Review Newspaper.
Please note paragraph stating Thermo Tech has 80 clients?!
Who are they? Where are they?
Regards,
cayman_98
Web-site:
rpl.richmond.bc.ca
Internet Edition
Vol. 5 No. 21
Wednesday,
May 26, 1999
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
Mitchell Island Plant Turns Food Waste Into Cash
Philip Raphael, Contributor
It may not be quite like changing water into wine, but the results are
almost as miraculous.
Common household food waste — usually fodder for the kitchen garburetor — along with commercially produced foodstuffs that have been damaged or reached expiration dates and were destined for landfills is now being transformed into animal feed with a little "divine intervention" of the scientific kind.
Performing this feat of near biblical proportions is Thermo Tech
Technologies Inc. which opened its latest recycling plant, Richmond Bio Conversion, on Mitchell Island on May 21.
"The world is literally drowning in waste. We are offering a solution that can help reduce how much is being sent to our landfills and turn it into a valuable product," said René Branconnier, president and CEO of Thermo Tech Technologies, a Langley-based company that is traded on NASDAQ. "It's almost unbelievable what we can do here. This a home grown process that was developed at UBC and could possibly lead to a worldwide market for our technology."
It has taken the company 20 years to refine the process which uses raw
materials that arrive by truck load in three forms: liquid, bulk and
packaged. Each shipment is weighed before being unloaded. Businesses pay a $45 per ton tipping fee to dump their waste organic material at the plant.
The cardboard or paper covering on packaged material is stripped away and sent for recycling — nothing is wasted.
The organic material, which can range from brewery and winery wastes to bakery goods and dairy products, is then dumped in huge kitchen blender-type machines called pulpers to break down the solids into a finer mixture or slurry. That is sent by pipeline to a fermenting tank where pasteurization and bacterial growth take place over a 24-hour period.
The bacteria create high temperatures while digesting the slurry and
ultimately a single cell protein is created.
That mixture is then dried and converted into livestock food pellets which are safe for cows, pigs and chickens to eat.
"Our product is a high value food source that is no different than regular livestock feed which is made from various grain or Soya bean crops," said Bill Bell, a consultant working for Thermo Tech Technologies who has spent 30 years in the livestock food industry. "And since it's a high-heat process there's no danger that the food source can be contaminated and cause problems like Mad Cow disease."
Based on processing a maximum of 1,200 tons of raw organic material a day, Thermo Tech's conversion process yields about a third (235 tons) of livestock feed for which the company receives approximately $200 a ton. Currently, the plant is running at 50 per cent capacity.
And no waste is left at the end of the process, except for plant odours that are burned off before air is vented from the building.
A staff of 20 has been running the $28 million plant on a 24-hour,
seven-day-a-week basis since operations began last December.
So far, the company has around 80 clients. They include supermarket chains and well known bulk producers such as Sun-Rype and Coca-Cola.
This is the third plant Thermo Tech has built, the first was opened in New York and Toronto has two. Mitchell Island was chosen because of its convenient location to suppliers and end product markets.
"We are close to the downtown markets for raw materials and right near the access to the highways to transport the finished product," Branconnier said.
One city councilor who is extremely pleased with Thermo Tech's opening is Harold Steves.
"About 20 years ago I worked hard at getting them funding to locate a pilot project here. Unfortunately that didn't work out and they had to go elsewhere, but it's gratifying that they have come back and located in Richmond."
Steves, who earned a degree in agricultural engineering at UBC, said that as a university student he performed similar lab experiments that used the fundamentals of Thermo Tech's conversion process, "But only more in low-tech methods."
Recycling waste products is important in all communities, Steves said, but even more so in Richmond.
"Richmond is an island. And anything we do in terms of dumping garbage up the river or pumping sewage out to sea is going to come back to haunt us," he said. "So, it's significant that a plant which can handle waste products in the manner and volumes this one can has decided to locate here. It's more than just a feather in the city's cap."
It could lead to like-minded businesses also putting down roots in the area, he added.
"I think Richmond should become one of the high-tech environmental areas in the world and having this plant here is a big step in that direction."
Exporting the technology is on the forefront of Branconnier's mind and
points to markets in the U.S. and Asia as likely areas of expansion.
"When you look at the potential we have here to reduce landfill use it can be staggering. Add that to the fact the technology can be easily converted to transform waste water to fertilizer, and we can make a great impact," he said.
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