Methane-busting seaweed production begins on the Eyre Peninsula
Production of feedstock made out of a special type of methane-busting seaweed begins today on the Eyre Peninsula, with phase one of CH4 Global’s EcoPark facility officially kicking off.
SA and Nevada-based CH4 Global’s ambitions to prevent the creation of one gigatonne of CO2 emissions by 2032 commenced in earnest today with the official opening of the company’s first phase of its full-scale Aspargopsis production plant.
Today, the business hosted SA Premier Peter Malinauskas and Federal Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell at its Louth Bay facility, which is 23km north of Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula.
There, CH4 has begun to grow and process Asparagopsis – a red seaweed variant native to South Australia that has been found to reduce methane emissions by up to 90 per cent when fed to cows and sheep.
The EcoPark facility currently has 10 large-scale cultivation ponds of Asparagopsis with a combined capacity of 2 million litres – capable of producing 80 metric tonnes of seaweed each year.
CH4 intends to expand the facility to 100 ponds over the next year, which could produce enough Asparagopsis to serve 45,000 cattle per day.
Beyond the growing ponds, the EcoPark facility consists of research and development facilities, a seedling hatchery and harvesting and drying technologies to convert the seaweed into CH4’s ‘Methane Tamer’ products.
L-R: Premier Peter Malinauskas, Federal Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell, Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development Clare Scriven, CH4 founder Dr Steve Meller and external relations manager Adam Main. Photo: Supplied.
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Founder and chief executive Dr Steve Meller said EcoPark was the first commercial facility of its kind.
“The EcoPark allows us to now grow Asparagopsis at scale, providing more Methane Tamer to the feedlots and farmers we are already working with, and to meet the needs of the increasing number of organisations contacting us to help them change the feeding habits of their cows as we start bending the climate curve,” Dr Meller said.
“We are well and truly working towards eliminating one billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions and reaching 150 million cattle by 2030 through our local and international partnerships with feedlots and farmers, and it’s fantastic to see beef from these cows hitting shelves in Australia and heading overseas.”
The launch of the first stage follows a $45 million investment into the company by venture capital funds DCVC, DCVC Bio and Cleveland Avenue in 2023. The injection of cash gave CH4 Global the funds to build the EcoPark facility.
Dr Meller today told InDaily the company had access to capital to triple the capacity of what CH4 already has on site.
“We’re actively in the process of raising project financing for the next phase of the project,” he said.
“That next phase is a $50 million raise to build effectively an EcoPark which has all the capacity that has already been promised. So we’ve got to build it.
“We’re deeply engaged with commercial lenders around project financing for that next level of capital. We have access to the land, we have all the permits in place, everything is ready to go.”
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Though he was tight-lipped on where the company would expand next in Australia, he noted the company’s new agreement with Mitsubishi to accelerate the adoption of its cattle feed supplement across Asia-Pacific markets.
The partnership will focus on expanding commercial sales of Methane Tamer in Australia and introducing the product to Japan.
Speaking to InDaily in 2023, CH4 Global external relations manager for Australia and New Zealand Adam Main said Louth Bay was selected because SA had “everything we need”.
“One of the things that South Australia has a competitive advantage in is a very strong aquaculture and regulatory ecosystem,” he said.
“More importantly, it has both species of Asparagopsis on its doorstep.
“We’ve also got a very well-established aquaculture industry which is not a bad thing when starting up new industry in this space.”
Lead community engagement officer for CH4 Australia and a proud descendant of Kaurareg Nations, Tiahni Adamson worked to ensure local knowledge and perspectives were considered in CH4’s work.
The 40 Under 40 alumni and Young South Australian of the Year said the company’s biggest barrier to its solution becoming widespread was growing the seaweed fast enough.
“We have really good relationships with our farmers and with the agriculture industry… to be able to make sure that we can get this technology on the line, but we need to grow seaweed as fast as we can,” she told InDaily.
Premier Peter Malinauskas congratulated the company on the “significant achievement”.
“South Australia is already a world leader in decarbonisation. Helping the rest of the world achieve this challenge presents an incredible opportunity to deliver a more complex economy and more jobs for South Australians,” Malinauskas said.
“Propagating local seaweed to feed cattle has the potential to drastically reduce methane emissions from agriculture, both here and around the globe.”
