China's pig producers invest in biogas project

Pig producers in China are investing in biogas projects to convert swine manure into fuel.

This move is part of a national initiative on green power technology.

China has set itself an ambitious target of generating enough biogas from pig manure and rice straw by 2020 to meet all the cooking and lighting needs of 7% of its rural population.

The latest example of this trend is the announcement of a new 370 kilowatt plant in Wuxi supplied by WELtec BioPower of Germany. The system is designed to convert 15,000 tonnes of pig manure and 1,500 tonnes of rice straw into methane every year. The raw material will be processed into two 60,000 cubic-foot fermenters for anaerobic digestion.