You may have heard of
the sustainability issue concerning cattle farming. Not only does it take up vast swathes of land and consumes huge amounts of water, it also produces large quantities of greenhouse gases. What was once just funny news is
now a real concern for those looking to reduce emissions. Now, a farmer from South Tyrol may have found the
perfect solution to turn livestock waste into clean, renewable energy.
Italian cows are producing biogas
Josef Mayr lives in South Tyrol and has spent most of his life working as a farmer. As an entrepreneur, he has brought together 62 partners with similar experience,
with the goal of making livestock farms sustainable by transforming waste into environmentally sustainable energy and fuel. In fact, Mayers has been working on this project since the 1990s, when there was still hardly any talk of sustainability in the food chain.
In South Tyrol, however, the issue of waste disposal was more evident than elsewhere, as
the local geography does not have a lot of suitable land for the storage and disposal of farm waste. This means that, as the industry expanded, the availability of usable land was shrinking, ultimately harming the farmers themselves.
Since then, Josef has been researching circular economics and he has recently started Biogas Wipptal, which recycles waste from livestock farms and uses it to create clean energy, from a proven renewable source, and to cut CO2 emissions.
From livestock farming to energy production
Biogas Wipptal, located near Vipiteno, collects organic waste from local cattle farms and ferments it in a controlled environment, preventing the naturally generated emissions from being released into the atmosphere. The gases produced by the fermentation of said waste are then transformed into liquid biogas. The process produces entirely organic waste materials that turned out to be excellent fertilisers and are easier to handle and transport than cattle manure. Other resources, such as dry ice and electricity, can also be obtained from livestock waste, in a perfect example of a circular economy that is rooted in the territory and optimises resource management.
At present, Biogas Wipptal can process around 35,000 tonnes of waste materials each year.
The next step: a biomethane plant
For Mayers, the success of this initiative is only the beginning of a journey to renew local energy production.
Now his goal is to build one of Europe's first biomethane plants, to increase the mass of waste processed to 150,000 per year. The investment required is huge - around 30 million euros - but the project has attracted the interest of many companies operating in various industries, from construction to transport, both in Italy and abroad. Even a delegation from China has arrived specifically to study Biogas Wipptal's undertaking and attempt to reproduce it at home.
