Green power ripe for developments.

• Author: Louiseize, Kelly
• Position: Pascol Engineering's diversification into digesters manufacturing.

Fitting into what appears to be part of the government's plan to introduce renewable energy, a northwestern engineering firm is looking at diversifying its traditional ship-repair business to eke out a market in the green-power sector.

Pascol Engineering in Thunder Bay developed a digester for EcoEnergy Corp.'s organic waste management system in Thunder Bay that is now attracting interest from American and Canadian farmers.

"What that does for Pascol is that we will be manufacturing these digesters and supplying them to EcoEnergy, which would put Pascol on the map," says Steve Allen, general manager of Pascol in Thunder Bay.

The system requires the waste of 1,000 cattle, at minimum, to be pumped from the barn to the blend tank where it is pre-heated and mixed with other organic matter. It then travels to the digester tank and processes up to 55 degrees Celsius where maximum gas production is obtained. The effluent is then channeled into a de-watering press where liquids and solids are separated, allowing the farmer to use the liquid, that has returned to a water state, for the herds or crops and the solids for adding nutrients to the soil. Energy is produced when the methane gas from the waste is contained in a generator and then used on the farm or sold to an electricity group.

Allen is anticipating the market is ready for the anaerobic digesters and if that is the case it would mean keeping company employees on 12 months out of the year instead of the current half-year cycle. He is awaiting word from local and regional government representatives who may assist in marketing the project outside the region, but says he would prefer to manufacture the digesters in the northwest with any spill-over to be picked up by their associated plant in St. Catharines. Traditionally, Pascol has concentrated on the ship-repair industry. However, with incentives to diversify, Allen is seeking opportunities that could augment production of the digesters.

Thunder Bay city members who are currently looking into wind power generation as an alternate energy source are forwarding some tower designs to Pascol in hopes that they can develop a structure for their wind turbines.

Zoe Beaulac, communications officer for Natural Resources Canada, says there has been a lot of interest, particularly in wind energy, from Northern Ontario since the region lies beside two of the Great Lakes.

Renewable Energy Deployment Initiative (REDI) has established the Wind Power...