“When you build gold plants you finish one and hopefully go on to the next one, but if you don’t the business can be lumpy. One of the reason s we got into biogas was to help smooth out our income,” Stone told Farming Ahead.

The company’s move to diversity grew from its expertise in offering modularised, containerised mineral processing plants. It has been fine tuning its waste management system at a local piggery, and now it is happy with the process it is looking to install a proof-of-concept model at a local dairy farm to help deal with the waste and smell issues there.

Once optimised, Gekko will look to scale up its prototype biodigester that will help the agricultural industry turn waste into renewable energy. The Ballarat-based company has developed a custom engineered shipping container that converts bio waste into gas, electricity and odour-free fertiliser.

“We see this as a growing market, and it’s one where farms may need six, eight or 10 these plants,” Stone said.

“They can add the modules to suit the herd, it helps clean up the human waste problem, and out of the plant to get wet and dry products like fertilisers, the gas is cleaned to be pure methane and products such as H2S, the rotten egg gas, is taken away,” Stone said.

The plants work on agricultural waste, green waste and industrial waste, he said.

Proclaimed as an Australian first at its launch by Victorian Resources Minister Wade Noonan last week, the innovation marks a first for Gekko.

“For industries like dairy farming, this will mean a waste disposal system that reduces their carbon footprint, saves money on electricity and provides a nutrient rich fertiliser,” Gekko co-founder and technical director Sandy Gray said.

“We are excited to apply the skills of our talented team here in regional Victoria to a problem that the whole of Australia is facing; electricity.

“The fact that our prototype also deals with waste disposal which is another challenge Australia is grappling with, is a strong indicator that clever solutions can be created locally. 

“Certainly we’re hopeful we can improve this technology down the track to deal with other forms of waste such as council rubbish collection.”

Gekko has been awarded funding from the Victorian government to help commercialise the technology, which was developed with a piggery in Ballarat that has operated a biodigester for a number of years to optimise treatment efficiency. 

The first new unit will be installed at a Bungaree dairy farm in mid-2017. Gekko is considering both sales and leasing of its modular plants, and it will establish a service division.