The unwavering perseverance of a dairy farm family was key to getting Dicklands Biogas up and running in Chilliwack.
Today itsa国际传媒檚 the largest biogas plant in B.C.
sa国际传媒淚t has been a big journey of perseverance,sa国际传媒� said George Dick, one of the owners of Dicklands Biogas.
The Dick family has lived on the dairy farm in Greendale since 1946, but the biogas part of their business is now ramping up after only being in operation for six months.
The goal is to produce 180,000 gigajoules of biogas a year, and they see it as the sa国际传媒渇uture of farming,sa国际传媒� according to their website.
The biogas is refined and sold to FortisBC, while the solids, or digestate materials, are made into fertilizer.
A large group of visitors was touring the sprawling site on Friday (Sept. 15), with Dicklands Biogas as one of three locations featured on the 2023 Chilliwack Agricultural Tour.
Waste, like livestock manure and local food waste, is transformed into biogas in air-tight tanks through fermentation.
sa国际传媒淚 donsa国际传媒檛 like to say that wesa国际传媒檙e particularly innovative because everything that yousa国际传媒檙e going to see here, I saw somewhere else,sa国际传媒� Dick explained.
Theysa国际传媒檝e been putting the sa国际传媒減uzzle piecessa国际传媒� of creating a biogas plant together for 13 years.
The massive tanks dominate the view at the farm, and they contain anaerobic digesters which take in the manure and organics, and produce the biogas.
The digester tanks were full of dairy manure, and chicken manure last week, as well as food waste from neighbouring farms.
Dick told the crowd they would also love an opportunity to take all of the City of Chilliwacksa国际传媒檚 12,000 tonnes of food waste. But that would only become possible one day if the yard waste was separated from the rest of the materials, since the digesters cansa国际传媒檛 handle any woody, fibrous materials.
In the meantime, neighbouring farms have been trucking in their excess manure, and food waste, and offloading at Dicklands, so the biogas plant is solving some environmental problems for other farms as well.
sa国际传媒淭he farms around me are really excited about it because maybe theysa国际传媒檒l just send me 10 per cent of their manure, or maybe theysa国际传媒檒l send me 15 per cent of their manure. But it will just be enough to bring them into balance,sa国际传媒� Dick said. And for some thatsa国际传媒檚 all they need.
This is how the company encapsulates its business description in marketing: sa国际传媒淥ur biogas plant protects air, water, and soil by converting manure and food waste into renewable natural gas and organic fertilizer pellets, all while reducing GHG emissions.sa国际传媒�
Scott Gramm, Fortis BCsa国际传媒檚 manager of renewable gas supply, said the family began the venture with feasibility studies in 2010.
Within two years, FortisBC signed a long-term agreement with them to buy energy from Dicklands.
The biogas would be piped right into the utilitysa国际传媒檚 natural gas pipelines from equipment installed at the farm.
sa国际传媒淎t the time there was only one project in B.C., just barely in operation,sa国际传媒� Gramm said about the state of the industry when the Dick family began looking at the possibilities in 2010.
There were only 30 existing biogas facilities anywhere on the continent.
Now Dicklands is one of seven biogas projects operating in B.C., with more than 300 across North America.
sa国际传媒淭hese guys faced all manner of hurdles over this last decade or so,sa国际传媒� Gramm told the crowd. sa国际传媒淎nd the thing is every door they knocked on for every new permit, theysa国际传媒檇 have to explain what biogas is.sa国际传媒�
The family persevered and were transparent throughout the process in getting a long-term agreement with Fortis BC.
sa国际传媒漈his in fact is the biggest and highest producing facility today in the province,sa国际传媒� Gramm said.
Their status as the largest in B.C. will at some point be eclipsed by two landfills equipped with new biogas plants coming online in Vancouver and Victoria, he noted. But Dickland Biogas will still remain the largest biogas facility on farmland.
The 2023 Ag Tour on Sept. 15 in Chilliwack started out with a visit to Rainbow Greenhouses, continued on to Dicklands Biogas, and then to Farmhouse Brewing Co.
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