Pigs' manure to fuel Mong Reththy farm

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
A pig peers through the bars of an enclosure at a Battambang farm.

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 09 August 2010 15:01 Sun Narin and Jeremy Mullins

THE Mong Reththy Group has signed a memorandum of understanding to build a biogas-generation plant fuelled by pig manure at its farm in Preah Sihanouk province.

The electricity-generation plant will be built at the group’s farm which is to contain 5,000 pigs for breeding in the Oknha Mong Development Zone.

Manure would be converted into biogas for on-site electricity consumption in a green initiative financed by German bank KfW Bankengruppe for an undisclosed sum, its owner Mong Reththy said yesterday.

“KfW will finance the electricity generation, and I am responsible for the pig farm,” he said.

The pig waste had the potential to continuously generate a small but constant 270 kilovolt amperes (kVA) of electricity, he said.

The German group has touted the procedure as one that could be replicated on other farms in Cambodia, helping to promote public awareness of renewable energy and the hazards of climate change, according to a statement.

“Uncontrolled livestock waste management contributes to significant air and other pollution in the vicinity of the farms,” KfW said in a press release that highlighted the production of methane from farm animals as a environmental hazard.

It said the new electricity generation scheme would generate income while reducing pollution caused by livestock.

Construction of the US$5 million farm, Mong Reththy’s second, is slated for completion next month.

The waste-powered generator scheme will also produce revenue through carbon credits, KfW said.

The state-owned bank operates a carbon fund used to purchase carbon credits, in keeping with the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.