Agricultural biomass wastes such as manure, silage, harvest byproducts (straw, fruit & vegetable wastes, etc.) all present waste management issues and environmental concerns.
For example, ruminant livestock such as cattle and sheep are the largest source of methane emissions resulting from human activity. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, globally, ruminant livestock produce about 80 million tons of methane annually, accounting for about 22% of global methane emissions from human-related activities.
All animal manures bring additional water and air pollutions concerns, such as the releases of nitrogen and phosphorous into watersheds. Traditionally, manure is spread on agricultural land as fertilizer. However, in areas of high population densities or high animal numbers this is no longer a viable disposal option.
Alternative disposal methods have been explored, such as manure composting. These options do not fully address the concerns surrounding methane release and have not proven to be efficient enough to address the volume of manure in many areas.
The ROC processes untreated agricultural waste, without odour, pollution, and destroys all furans, dioxins and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in line with Canadian Food Inspection Agency guidelines. Thermal and electrical energy is produced to enable full operation of processing plants and facilities. This makes it an ideal closed loop solution for production, clean safe disposal and self-sustaining energy production. The ROC can also be used in its mobile form to assist with humanitarian efforts, military deployments and for outlying communities.