Researchers in Canada are looking at ways to turn waste from processing fish into biodiesel. This article from the Grand Falls-Windsor Advertiser says work by Dr. Deepika Dave, a research scientist with the Marine Institute (MI) of Memorial University, could create biodiesel from salmon waste while cleaning up the environment.
The processing of salmon generates large amounts of solid wastes, up to 45 to 50 percent of the body weight of the processed salmon.
Research from the DFA has revealed that 12 percent of salmon aquaculture production within the province is turned out as waste every year due to disease and other factors which includes mortality.
The province’s salmon industry generates an average of 6276 tonnes of processing discards and 1,712 tonnes of mortalities from which valuable oil can be recovered. The province has the potential to produce 1,600 tonnes of salmon oil that can be converted into approximately 1,520 tonnes of biodiesel.
Salmon waste management is an issue, which has the greatest impact on the environment, especially the marine environment.
The researchers hope that one day the process would help keep the salmon waste out of landfills and provide remote fishing communities with a source of clean fuel to run generators and marine vessels.