Big, Mean, Manure Eating Machine
Photo credit:NRELA large power plant is nearly complete near the rural community of Benson, MN, in the heart of turkey-growing country. But this isn’t your traditional coal plant: This is a biomass plant able to power about 55,000 homes using 700,000 tons of turkey “litter” (a.k.a. manure), with some woodchips and sawdust blended in.
Once completed in June, the plant will be the first of its kind in the United States. Its operator, Fibrominn, is a subsidiary of Fibrowatt, a company that already operates three similar facilities in the United Kingdom. Biomass plants make electricity by burning organic refuse (plant and animal waste) that produces steam and turns a generator.
Area turkey farmers will provide much of the 2,000 – 2,500 tons of manure needed on a daily basis. After it’s burned, the leftover ash will be processed into a “high value” fertilizer. North American Fertilizer President Randy Tersteec explained to Renewable Energy Access that the combustion process eliminates the nitrogen from the manure but enhances the phospherus and potassium into a fertilizer “ideal” for row crop farmers.
“If they’re spreading four tons of litter per acre now,” he claims, “they’ll get the same nutrients in 400 pounds of our product.”
In response to pollution concerns, Fibrominn CEO Carl Strickler maintains that burning turkey manure doesn’t release any more pollution than it would have created while decomposing in the fields.
