Gloria Chang - TTRIF losses TechnologyG8 has nothing to do with TTRIF. TTRIF lost their technology in a court case. The link is broke, but I found the write up. Thanks Roy.
Going Brown – Recycling food waste into a second meal
By Gloria Chang, June 4, 1998 (DISCOVERY CHANNEL) @ www.exn.ca/Stories/1998/06/02/56.asp
One enterprising Canadian company is hoping to cash in on that waste – by giving the leftovers a second life. Vancouver-based Thermotech Technologies doesn't see food-gone-bad as garbage, but as a raw resource that can be converted into a valuable commodity rich in protein, fat and fibre.
"We're taking wet organic waste that's normally gone to landfills in the past and processing it and turning it into a high-value end product in the form of a livestock feed supplement," says Ed Kroeker, marketing director.
Their first working plant in Hamilton, Ontario takes in about 200 tonnes of food waste daily, and churns out about 30 tonnes of animal feed supplement with that. With an expansion plan to increase that capacity to 700 tonnes a day and the construction of five new plants across Canada underway, the company has the potential to divert a significant amount of food waste that normally ends up at the landfills.
But, it's the potential to make money that's propelled the folks at Thermotech to invest $84 million over the past 11 years developing their system that converts the wet food waste into a dry, storable feed supplement. It is then sold by Miracle Feeds of Canada Ltd. in London, Ontario
Everyday, at their Hamilton plant, food garbage collected from grocery stores and restaurants is dumped into a receiving area. On the day EXN came to pay a visit, the floor was full of vegetables, fruit, dinner rolls, cooked pasta and even coffee grinds.
A front-end loader then scoops up the waste and dumps it into what's called a hydropulper, which grinds it up into a brown, watery slurry. The slurry is then pumped into specially ventilated and insulated tanks. And it's in here that the bulk of this "bio-conversion" takes place.
Inside, are naturally-occurring micro-organisms. These heat-loving or thermophilic bacteria engage in a type of feeding frenzy. To eat, they produce protein-rich enzymes to break down the slurry into compounds small enough to absorb and digest. These enzymes also increase the protein content – turning food waste that typically starts with about eight per cent protein into a mixture with at least 15 per cent.
To encourage their growth, air is pumped into the tanks as the bacteria need oxygen in the air to survive. The bacteria grow so fast, they produce their own heat – reaching temperatures of up to 70 degrees Celsius. That's more than enough to kill off all the harmful pathogens like salmonella and e coli.
The pellets contain 15% protein, 22% fibre, 9% fat, 1% calcium, and .5% phosphorus.
After 24 hours in the tanks, the resulting goo is dried and formed into pellets. The result is a high-fat, mid-level protein animal feed supplement. In Canada, the pellets are approved to make up ten per cent of the feed for meat poultry and swine.
"We're the only company in the world that is using this patented process," says Kroeker.