20 Farm News First > BetterFarming.com Better Farming August 2016 Like many other farmers with anaerobic digesters in Ontario, Korb Whale soon ran into challenges when he built one in 2010. From sourcing off-farm organics to keep the facility running to quirks and problems with equipment, the struggles led Whale to call a meeting with other digester operators. “Everybody held their cards pretty close to their chest,” he recalls. “Because it’s a competitive market and we weren’t sure who each other was. And little by little we realized that we all were going through similar things and we might as well learn from each other’s mistakes. And (by) about the second or third meeting we all realized we were sourcing off-farm waste with varying degrees of success and none of us had a very solid background in the waste sector.” The group realized something MAIN FEATURE Company manages digesters’ craving for organic waste else: by working together, they could offer waste operators a regular place for organic waste with several drop-off points. Three years ago, 12 of these digester operators – 10 of whom are farmers – would go on to establish Cornerstone Renewables Inc., a company to source organic waste for the member digesters. Today, the group accepts nearly 17,000 tonnes a month of organic waste, more than triple the 5,200 tonnes operators accepted when they first joined forces, and they have the capacity to handle 220,000 tonnes annually. At commercial sites such as Seacliffe Energy Ltd. in Leamington and Woolwich Bio-En in Elmira, there also exists the capacity to process commercial or dirty waste, such as packaging mixed in with organic waste and a form of treated wastewater from meat processors that contains fats, oils and grease. “That means we’re able to offer a very robust solution to all kinds of different waste producers,” says Travis Woollings, Cornerstone’s general manager. Despite Ontario’s recent an- nouncement of funds to kick-start the renewable natural gas industry, building more sites is not a priority for Cornerstone. Instead, on the company’s wish list is establishing an organic transfer facility, possibly in the Greater Toronto Area, that could “depackage” waste and “bulk it up” to send to other locations. There’s a lot of volume in the GTA but it comes in small packages, Woollings explains. “It doesn’t make economic sense to ship that small volume long distances.” Sourcing organics won’t be a challenge for the anaerobic digester that will eventually supply Rural Green Energy with renewable natural gas. The digester, which will be built at a beef operation owned by John Yssel- stein Jr. in Oxford County, will supple- ment manure with vegetable waste. John Ysselstein Sr. says that the family currently buys or acquires vegetable waste from local sources, such as food processor Bonduelle Canada. They feed it to their ani- mals, and it can also be used in the digester, he says. Jennifer Green, executive director of the Canadian Biogas Association, says the organization wants the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to prioritize organics diversion to ensure a steady supply of organics for anaerobic digesters. “To be able to create conditions where the use and optimization of those organic materi- als is prioritized is important,” she says. “Those things have to come hand-in-hand. The Climate Action Plan, the Organic Action Plan that will unfold from the Waste-Free Ontario Act, all of those will have to play together, as well as the long- term energy plan that the province will be unveiling in the fall.” BF Anaerobic digestion converts material such as manure and organic waste into methane gas.