News

8/20/2007

Midwest to buy bio-power from poultry

Buckeye Power, Inc. and Midwest Electric, Inc. have entered into an agreement to purchase bio-gas power from a poultry farm in Ft. Recovery. Wenning Poultry, a Midwest Electric member, will provide electricity to Ohio's electric cooperatives from a generator that runs on poultry manure bio-gas, as part of a methane digester project that is among the first of its kind in the nation.

The system includes three 600 kilowatt Martin Machine generator engines that will be fueled by bio-gas collected from the digester, for a total output of 1.8 megawatts, enough to power about 300 area homes on average.

Wenning's system will be interconnected to the Midwest Electric distribution sytem and flow all of its output through a meter at which point it will be purchased by Buckeye Power and delivered to the Midwest Electric system as a new delivery point. Buckeye has a ten year cost-based agreement to purchase all of the electrical output and all of the renewable attributes associated with the electrical output. The 1.8 megawatts of output is expected to be received on a near continuous basis.

Excavation for the project is complete and the anaerobic digester system is expected to be in operation by December. The digester system is designed by GHD Associates, a Chilton, WI, engineering firm represented by WAB Associates, of Minster, OH.

GHD has been a leader in the environmental industry for the past 17 years, specializing in petroleum and farm related environmental engineering. Its anaerobic digesters greatly reduce the odor on farms, are cost-effective and require low maintenance.

The system converts manure and other organic waste into three valuable bi-products: a bio-gas, which can be burned to create electricity or scrubbed to make natural gas; a bio-solid, used as high-quality bedding or as a soil amendment; and a liquid stream that is non-odorous and can be applied as a fertilizer to growing crops. The system can be implemented at agri-businesses with organic wastes such as meat packing plants, dairy plants, and vegetable processors as well as municipal sewage treatment plants and other waste treatment facilities.

At Wenning Poultry, the methane bio-gas will be collected from the digester vessel and utilized for fuel in the combined heat and power generators. These generators are commercially available, natural gas-fueled reciprocating engines modified to burn poultry manure bio-gas.

Waste heat, in the form of hot water, is collected from both the engine jacket liquid cooling system and from the engine exhaust system. Approximately 30 to 60% of this waste heat is utilized in the digester system. The remaining waste heat can be used by the farm as a replacement for hot water production (reducing the need for natural gas or propane purchases) and for in-floor heating of the farm and holding areas, as required.

According to Jim Wenning, owner of the poultry farm, "It (the digester system) will be a good value-added benefit to the farm product here. It will give us more avenues and markets for the manure, such as providing cleaner compost for organic farming."

Wenning continued, "The United States is depleting its carbon sources in soil, and this end product will add carbon to the soil for those who use this manure. Commercial fertilizers are salt-based and in time will deplete the soils. Our product will rebuild that soil. This will be a good niche - something they can't find anywhere else."

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has provided a $500,000 grant for the aerobic digester system.

Buckeye Power, Inc., Columbus, is the generation and transmission Cooperative jointly owned by Ohio's 25 electric distribution Cooperatives. It utilizes a mix of power generated from coal, natural gas, hydro and other renewable sources to serve more than 360,000 homes, farms and businesses throughout Ohio.

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