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The next energy source: Barnyard animals
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 10, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Save America's energy. Feed a cow.
That pretty much sums up the work of Microgy, which has discovered that manure and other waste products from cows, pigs and other livestock is a largely untapped source of energy in the United States. The company, a subsidiary of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Environmental Power Corp., builds industrial-sized "digesters" that, through heat and microbes, reduce mountains of waste into gas or electricity that can be reused on the farm or sold on the open market.
Microgy's Huckabay Ridge facility--under construction at a major composting center near Stephenville, Texas, at a cost of up to $11.5 million--will house eight 916,000-gallon digesters, which together are capable of processing the manure of 10,000 cows. The plant will start shipping natural gas (methane) to a customer in the third quarter and, when fully operational, will churn out an estimated 1 billion cubic feet of biogas a year for $4.6 million in revenue.
"Initially it might get a chuckle, but this is real," said Kam Tejwani, CEO of Environmental Power. "We can make money without all of the subsidies and credits you see with other alternative energy projects."
Filling up with biogas
Thermophilic and mesophilic digesters produce biogas, which is made of two-thirds methane (natural gas) and one-third carbon dioxide. Biogas can be used on the farm to run equipment that ordinarily consumes propane or can power an electricity generator. It can also be shipped through commercial gas pipelines, but that would require an additional expense because the carbon dioxide would need to be burned off first.
Burning manure for fuel has been a part of human society since the days of stone knives and bear skins. But today, rising prices for oil and natural gas are prompting investors to seek out alternative fuels and new ways to draw on existing energy sources.
Unfortunately, good alternative energy ideas aren't easy to find. The energy crisis of the 1970s produced legislative mandates and entrepreneurial ideas to promote wind, wave and solar power, but most of those initiatives faded away when oil prices eventually declined. Ethanol and biodiesel--a combination of vegetable alcohol and gasoline--has its adherents, but some researchers say it is a losing proposition because a gallon of the fuel consumes more energy in production than it provides to a car.
As a result, not everyone thinks the alternative energy business is a great investment. Mark Dubovoy of the investment firm Leapfrog Venture said recently that many ideas touted by start-ups could take a decade or more to pay off and face substantial competition from large corporations.
Still, other venture capitalists are betting on the business for the future, especially when start-up costs are manageable: Manure, for example, is a substance of little or no value. Because it can cause fish kills and algae blooms, manure is an expensive regulatory burden that most farmers are anxious to get rid of.
At the Five Star Dairy in Elk Mound, Wisc., solid waste processed by a digester is used as cow bedding, which saves the farm $2,000 to $3,000 a month, while the remaining liquids can still be used as fertilizer, according to Lee Jensen, the farm's general manager.
"It actually makes the fertilizer better because it reduces the odor and kills the weed seed," Jensen said. "There are a lot of benefits to the system."
Fed by the waste of 900 cows, Five Star's digester cranks out about 6.5 million kilowatt hours a year--enough to power 600 homes annually. Jensen said the digester, which has been working for about a year, will likely become a profit center for Five Star in a decade, once capital costs are paid off.
In March, meat giant Swift & Co. signed a letter of intent to build a biogas production facility in Grand Island, Neb., and to explore building more at Swift's seven other plants. The biogas from Swift's plants has the potential to generate the equivalent of 25,000 barrels of heating oil a day.
A few U.S. farmers have installed "mesophilic" digesters, which decompose manure in cement vats at ambient temperatures. The manure from 1,000 cows might generate up to 150 kilowatts of energy in this process, about enough to run a farm.
But mesophilic digesters--named for a strain of bacteria--thrive best at temperatures between 75 and 90 degrees. If the temperature drops to freezing or below, energy production stops.
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 10, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Save America's energy. Feed a cow.
That pretty much sums up the work of Microgy, which has discovered that manure and other waste products from cows, pigs and other livestock is a largely untapped source of energy in the United States. The company, a subsidiary of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Environmental Power Corp., builds industrial-sized "digesters" that, through heat and microbes, reduce mountains of waste into gas or electricity that can be reused on the farm or sold on the open market.
Microgy's Huckabay Ridge facility--under construction at a major composting center near Stephenville, Texas, at a cost of up to $11.5 million--will house eight 916,000-gallon digesters, which together are capable of processing the manure of 10,000 cows. The plant will start shipping natural gas (methane) to a customer in the third quarter and, when fully operational, will churn out an estimated 1 billion cubic feet of biogas a year for $4.6 million in revenue.
"Initially it might get a chuckle, but this is real," said Kam Tejwani, CEO of Environmental Power. "We can make money without all of the subsidies and credits you see with other alternative energy projects."
Filling up with biogas
Thermophilic and mesophilic digesters produce biogas, which is made of two-thirds methane (natural gas) and one-third carbon dioxide. Biogas can be used on the farm to run equipment that ordinarily consumes propane or can power an electricity generator. It can also be shipped through commercial gas pipelines, but that would require an additional expense because the carbon dioxide would need to be burned off first.
Burning manure for fuel has been a part of human society since the days of stone knives and bear skins. But today, rising prices for oil and natural gas are prompting investors to seek out alternative fuels and new ways to draw on existing energy sources.
Unfortunately, good alternative energy ideas aren't easy to find. The energy crisis of the 1970s produced legislative mandates and entrepreneurial ideas to promote wind, wave and solar power, but most of those initiatives faded away when oil prices eventually declined. Ethanol and biodiesel--a combination of vegetable alcohol and gasoline--has its adherents, but some researchers say it is a losing proposition because a gallon of the fuel consumes more energy in production than it provides to a car.
As a result, not everyone thinks the alternative energy business is a great investment. Mark Dubovoy of the investment firm Leapfrog Venture said recently that many ideas touted by start-ups could take a decade or more to pay off and face substantial competition from large corporations.
Still, other venture capitalists are betting on the business for the future, especially when start-up costs are manageable: Manure, for example, is a substance of little or no value. Because it can cause fish kills and algae blooms, manure is an expensive regulatory burden that most farmers are anxious to get rid of.
At the Five Star Dairy in Elk Mound, Wisc., solid waste processed by a digester is used as cow bedding, which saves the farm $2,000 to $3,000 a month, while the remaining liquids can still be used as fertilizer, according to Lee Jensen, the farm's general manager.
"It actually makes the fertilizer better because it reduces the odor and kills the weed seed," Jensen said. "There are a lot of benefits to the system."
Fed by the waste of 900 cows, Five Star's digester cranks out about 6.5 million kilowatt hours a year--enough to power 600 homes annually. Jensen said the digester, which has been working for about a year, will likely become a profit center for Five Star in a decade, once capital costs are paid off.
In March, meat giant Swift & Co. signed a letter of intent to build a biogas production facility in Grand Island, Neb., and to explore building more at Swift's seven other plants. The biogas from Swift's plants has the potential to generate the equivalent of 25,000 barrels of heating oil a day.
A few U.S. farmers have installed "mesophilic" digesters, which decompose manure in cement vats at ambient temperatures. The manure from 1,000 cows might generate up to 150 kilowatts of energy in this process, about enough to run a farm.
But mesophilic digesters--named for a strain of bacteria--thrive best at temperatures between 75 and 90 degrees. If the temperature drops to freezing or below, energy production stops.
