Thursday, October 25, 2007

Cargill to turn Indonesian feedlot waste to energy

[ Reuters ]


CHICAGO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - U.S. agribusiness company Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] said on Tuesday it began constructing a facility on an Indonesian cattle feedlot to convert animal waste into energy.

The anaerobic digester, scheduled to begin operating by February 2008, on PT Santosa Agrido's Lampung Bekri 23,000-cattle feedlot operation in Lampung/Sumatera, Indonesia, will convert cattle manure into 900 tonnes of methane gas per year that will be used to generate energy for the feedlot.

"Cargill has taken the responsibility to develop, fund and implement the project, including managing of all permitting and registration issues. That allows us to concentrate on what we're here for, which is to reinforce our position as the largest cattle feed lot business in the region," Samuel Wibisono, PT Santosa Agrindo's president director of its beef division, said in a statement.

The project is designed to reduce the greenhouse gas equivalent of 188,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere over 10 years. A byproduct of the process will be an organic corn fertilizer.

The technology, managed and funded by Cargill's Environmental Finance group, will generate carbon credits that can be traded on global climate exchanges.

Minneapolis-based Cargill, the second-largest privately held U.S. company, is a global provider of food, agricultural and trading services.

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