By Industrial & Environmental Concepts Inc., via National Hog Farmer.

A Missouri project, believed to be the largest and most comprehensive livestock manure-to-energy of its type in the world, is currently under way. The project efficiently treats waste from approximately 2 million hogs. The farms are being covered by Industrial & Environmental Concepts, a designer and installer of cover systems for wastewater lagoons and tanks. Roeslein Alternative Energy of St. Louis selected IEC to provide the gas collection cover systems to dozens of hog lagoons in northern Missouri.

The covers effectively capture and channel valuable gases that are byproducts of the manure storage on the farms. The collected gas is sent to equipment for scrubbing, cleaning and then compressed into natural gas. The manure is effectively broken down to basic elements, making the nutrients easily available to plants in the form of fertilizer. The benefit of this system is not limited to the creation of natural gas and fertilizer; it also reduces the carbon footprint of the facilities which globally has become an important environmental topic.