Background
Frigorífico Mabella (Marfrig Group) is a nine-year old pork processing, swine production, and trading company in the Matto Grosso province of Brazil. The project was implemented in the "Diamantino 1" swine production site, where 11,000 sows live in a typical confined animal feed operation (CAFO) site.
Originally, the farm used electricity supplied by the local electric grid, part of the Brazilian National Interconnected System. In the first phase of the project, a biogas power plant with five small generator groups, with an approximate 700 kilowatts of electric (kWe) capacity in continuous operation, was installed to supply the farm with electricity. In the second phase, two generating sets with nominal power of 925 - 1,038 kWe were installed to consume all of the biogas generated at the site. The project is registering daily production of around 15,000 cubic meters (m3) of biogas and is expected to produce about 20,000 m3 per day.
Although this type of project has been already implemented in Brazil, Mabella's project is superior to all the others in terms of engineering, designing, and equipment. It combines high technology with simple designing, which makes it financially attractive, and should be used as an international example. Project designers leveraged their accumulated experience to include numerous details in the project, which will prevent failures and prolong the project lifetime. Considering that most swine manure projects in Brazil with anaerobic digestion systems flare methane instead of using it, this project can be considered state-of-art.
LOGICarbon, the contractor for this project, began designing the project in July 2008, just as the open lagoons were starting to be cleaned. Construction started in early 2009 and concluded in February 2010. The inauguration took place on March 2010. The current project has a 700 kW biogas plant already generating electricity for the farm's consumption (it is self-sufficient), and the next step is to reach a total capacity of 2 megawatts.
Environmental and economic benefits
This project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime. The project will reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions by approximately 75,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) annually and, as long as the swine farm operates at current levels and continues to capture and use methane, it has the potential to reduce the emissions of 1 million MTCO2E within 15 years.
The project also has a considerable market potential. After the initial project implementation costs of slightly more than $1 million (USD), the project will generate slightly less than $1 million annually in electricity savings and sales. Required maintenance costs of slightly less than $500,000 (USD) per year. The initial investment for implementation should be recovered within two years, making this a highly profitable project in both the short and long term.
The project was presented to the Brazilian authorities in September 2008. Validation was concluded in February 2010 and now the project is waiting for approval by the Brazilian Government. LOGICarbon expects to register the project at the UNFCCC in November 2010. Soon the project expects to generate Clean Development Mechanism carbon credits from the combustion of the captured methane.
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