May 25, 2007

 

Minnesota builds the first poultry powered plant in the US

 

 

The 55-megawatt Fibrominn LLC plant in Minnesota will be the first poultry litter-fired power plant in the US.

 

When completed, it would produce enough power for 50,000 homes.

 

Although poultry litter would normally be used as fertiliser, concerns about nitrates and phosphates build up in soil, groundwater and runoff have prompted farmers to look for other ways of disposal.

 

Using poultry litter in power stations is a long-term, economically and environmentally sustainable alternative, said Greg Langmo, a turkey farmer who is also fuels manager for Fibrominn.

 

The plant would consume about 40 percent of the turkey litter produced by the state, turning about 500,000 tonnes of it per year into electricity. Around 20 percent to 25 percent of the plant's fuel mix will be other biomass, he said.

 

Fibrowatt Ltd the builder of the plant, caught the attention of poultry farmers in Minnesota when it developed three smaller poultry litter power stations in Britain in the 1990s. The state is the largest turkey-producing state in the US

 

Poultry litter works as a fuel because it is relatively dry and easy to burn. Three tonnes of poultry litter produce about as much energy as a tonne of coal.

 

The fact that it is biomass also means it is less harmful to the enviroment compared to burning fossil fuels.

 

While both release carbon dioxide when they're burned, energy from biomass comes from the grains that absorbed carbon dioxide from the air as it grew. On the other hand, burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide that were trapped in the earth.

 

Fibrowatt LLC is planning projects in several other major poultry states such as North Carolina, Arkansas, Maryland and Mississippi.

 

In Georgia, another developer, Earth Resources Inc. is building a 20-megawatt chicken litter-burning plant.

 

Ciritics of poultry powered plants said power would have been much cheaper if poultry litter had simply been spread as fertilizer and coal was used for generating power. Others also pointed out that in organic farming, which is fast becoming popular, chemical fertilizers, the alternative to poultry litter, cannot be used.