– It means an enormous amount to us. We become an in-house producer of electricity. It also means that we must be able to supply energy to other companies around us. That’s what Roald Knudsen, manager of Båtsfjord company Liholmen, says on a daily basis. The industry uses a lot of electricity to produce fish waste for use as feed in salmon farming. The management in the business chose to think differently and decided that they wanted to see if it was possible to produce their own electricity by using energy in fish waste, cow dung and food waste. After that, innovative development work has taken place. Fish waste, food waste and cow dung are boiled for ten days to create a gas that drives a turbine which in turn produces electricity. The road there has not been easy. – It is a pilot plant on a global basis, so there have been some challenges. There is no one to call, there is no one else who knows. But we now see that it works, says operations manager Niclas Edøy Jensen. Operations manager Niclas Edøy Jensen in front of the tank with cow dung, fish waste and food waste where the transformation into gas takes place. Photo: Bård Wormdal NOK 500,000 In total, the investment has cost Liholmen NOK 70 million. The venture is possible thanks to financial support from Innovation Norway and Enova. Industriverksemda expects to save half a million kroner in electricity costs next year. Cow dung from farms in the neighboring municipality Food waste comes from the whole of Aust-Finnmark. The food waste was previously taken to an incineration plant in Boden in Sweden. High diesel prices made it less profitable. – The waste company will deliver as much as possible locally. And it is an hour and a half from the waste facility to where we produce gas from it. Last week we got ten tonnes. With full production, it will be 20 tonnes a week, says Roald Knudsen. The facility receives cow dung through agreements with farmers in the neighboring municipality of Tana. The gardeners get boiled cow dung back. – This bioresidue is a better fertilizer than what they may have themselves, – i.e. the cow dung, says Knudsen. The industrial operation itself has converted fish waste from its ordinary production. In the production of cod, pollock and haddock and other whiting species, only about half of the fish is used for fillets. Liholmen adds acid to fish waste, which becomes silage, which is an important ingredient in feed for salmon farming. Fisheries Minister Bjørnar Skjæran believes that the technology can be a contribution to the green transition. Photo: Bård Wormdal Fisheries minister is excited This week, fisheries minister Bjørnar Skjæran was on a fishing trip. The Minister of Fisheries was greatly impressed by what he saw. – This shows what is possible to achieve with new technology and good entrepreneurs who invest. I find this very exciting. It’s about making things as sustainable as possible, says Skjæran. There are now concrete plans for new establishments due to the production of electricity in the fishing village.
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Boils fish and food waste with cow dung to produce electricity – news Troms and Finnmark
