Agri-tech firm BHSL, an Irish company, has agreed to a $3 million deal with the state of Maryland to pilot its proprietary technology that converts chicken manure to heat energy and a non-polluting ash-type fertilizer. The state itself awarded BHSL $1 million for the pilot project, with the company putting in the additional funds itself. The Maryland pilot project will take about a year.
Maryland and adjoining states on the Eastern Seaboard raise about 1 billion chickens per year – about one eighth of the U.S. total. BHSL now has the only system that meets new U.S. and EU environmental regulations. The BHSL system is already operational on a number of large farms in the UK.
BHSL chief executive Declan O’Connor said that new laws in Maryland restricting land-spreading over the next five years were “a major problem for the industry, and we’re solving that problem.” “We’re taking a bi-product, which is the manure, which is seen as a problem, and transforming that as a fuel on the farm which really creates a sustainable agricultural solution for the industry, particularly in Maryland.”
“Just in terms of scale, there is 11,000 broiler farms in the U.S. commercially. 1,600 of those farms are in the Chesapeake Bay region, which covers six states. Maryland alone has just under 500 farms,” O’Connor said, “As market leaders in poultry manure-to-energy technology, BHSL is creating a triple bottom line for farms,” he said.
“We’re saving on fossil fuels, which is the traditional energy source, we’re increasing production efficiency through heat saving, and we’re attracting green subsidies, which is part now of most countries commitment to climate change.”
