ACT Roadkill Case Study

APPLICATION BRIEF:

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

ROADKILL MANAGEMENT Industrial Duty, Built to Scale

Multi-bin DOT Site

ACT’s modular systems of both industrial custom turnkey, and industrial kit installation options allow us to size the composting system to fit the volume needs of each DOT application. Some DOT departments may configure smaller systems to support several counties, or larger systems to satisfy needs for a larger area. Working with planners at each DOT operation, we can scale the ACT Roadkill Composting site to match the budget and roadkill mortalities expected for the area served. Some of our configurations can even be designed in such a format to meet construction, site, and budgeting guidelines to avoid “Capital Budgeting” approvals within State regulations. Most importantly, the ACT Forced Air Composting systems compensate for huge variances in feedstock, both in terms of size and quantity of animals needing to be processed. Output compost from our ACT systems is environmentally friendly, does not have odor, and can provide ample output for DOT uses for landscaping, or optionally for sale.

Individual Kit Options

Forced Air System

Our DOT/Roadkill installations are often, custom turnkey solutions built for rugged, daily use with standard road-working/farm style equipment. We also offer a “kit” option for circumstances where the user prefers to do their own site installations, or perhaps have existing bin configurations that need a high performance upgrade. These kit options include all the necessary components to build and operate an industrial duty composting operation, utilizing the ACT Forced Air, and Closed Loop systems for environmentally responsible composting.

Benefits Steam from Active Bin

• Inexpensive + clean: Eliminates fossil fuel costs and mess of incineration systems • Safe, environmentally sound: “Green” operation, environmental stewardship • Accommodates spikes in mortalities: Very scalable on daily needs • Adjusts to seasons: Fully operational in sub-freezing environments • Closed loop system: No runoff waste • No pre-processing: Handles extremely large animals without pre-processing • Industrial use: Designed for industrial use with standard DOT/road-work equipment • Clean compost: Ready for resource use, source of landscaping material • Scalable to use/budget: Site size is custom configured to usage requirements

Clean, Odor-Free Compost

Advanced Composting Technologies, Inc. | P.O. Box 2440 | Candler, NC 28715 | 828-665-8600

www.advancedcomposting.com

USER SUCCESS REPORT: DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION ROADKILL MANAGEMENT

VIRGINIA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

JIM WHITE, STATE OF VIRGINIA

Big Job, Big Challenge

Real World Results

Like many states, the Department of Transportation in Virginia is tasked with the retrieval and disposal of roadkill animals across the 58,000 miles of Virginia’s highways. Along with having to service the 40,000 square miles of the state, a key consideration with a roadkill processing solution is the significant variances that may exist in the volume of pounds and size of animals requiring processing. VA needed a system quick and called on the team at ACT, with one major caveat: we had to prove we could process huge spikes in carcass processing, simulating what might occur in the fall season deer rut when deer and vehicles are both meeting at the same inopportune place on the VA highways.

A real-world stress test was conducted at the ACT installation in South Boston, VA where we loaded the system with over 8,000 pounds of deer carcass and mix, applied the Forced Air, Closed Loop system and recipe into full operation. With operational efficiency, this huge influx of feedstock was reduced to clean, odor free compost in approximately 60 days! Virginia state DOT personnel have been extremely impressed with the efficiency of the system, and especially with the low odor and cleanliness of the site.

ACTUAL COMMENTS FROM OUR USERS “The more I learned about ACT, the more I saw their concept fitting our way of doing business. We needed to handle large volumes of road-kill during rut, and higher composting temperatures with no turning required to provide aeration; with no moving parts to breakdown, and a clean, closed-loop leachate control system. After one visit to a NC farm, watching them load sows one on top of the other, I was convinced it would work for us. Odor control was extremely critical, and everyone notices the lack of offensive odors. We’ve looked at other systems but for us, ACT’s forced air technology is by far the most applicable to handling our road-kill problems. Now we can focus on the implementation and logistics, because we know their system will handle whatever we throw at it.

- Jim White, State of VA, DOT I was skeptical at first about bringing the county’s road kill to our location to compost, but I was determined that if the project failed, it would not be because we didn’t do our part. The system has performed better than I expected. From deer to dogs to donkeys we’ve had no problems; temperatures have been great, leachate is captured and recycled, and odors are just not an issue. The finished compost works well for erosion control and establishing grass after construction. We’ve pushed the system too, loading nearly 8,OOOlbs in one day to simulate our worst case scenario during the rut season, and it handled that, no problem.

- Ross Poppe, Area Superintendent, VA/DOT.

Humane Processing New Roadkill

Bin Fully Loaded with Roadkill

Pathogen Killing Temperatures

Advanced Composting Technologies, Inc. | P.O. Box 2440 | Candler, NC 28715 | 828-665-8600

www.advancedcomposting.com