Residents squawk at (turkey manure) energy plant

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-43/1218806142250750.xml&coll=6

Residents squawk at energy plant

Friday, August 15, 2008
By Ken Kolker
The Grand Rapids Press

HOWARD CITY -- The two plastic buckets in the back of Harley Sietsema's red pickup were filled with turkey droppings, the kind he hopes someday to turn into electricity.

The longtime Allendale Township turkey farmer parked his pickup outside the front door of the Pierson Township Hall late Thursday, hoping to make a point -- neighbors should not worry about smell from the waste-to-energy plant he hopes to build near the southern edge of Howard City.

Not all neighbors were convinced. While many realize the need for renewable energy, some still don't want the source so close to their backyards.

Nearly 100 people packed the Township Hall for a public hearing before Pierson's Planning Commission, which must decide whether to allow the plant on a 40-acre industrial site that butts up against farmland. Sietsema already operates a large feed mill on the site, at 19117 Lake Montcalm Road.

…

[jtrockville]

1. Would these folks rather have a NUKE in their back yard?

Or have nuclear waste transported through their back yard?

Maybe they just want the "energy fairies" to generate their energy?

[NV Whino]

2. Ayup

Me, I'm awaitin' on the energy fairies.

[NickB79]

3. Synthetic fertilizer prices are at all-time highs while we're burning up manure

:banghead:

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Um... I don't think we're burning manure per se

Typically, these plants burn methane. Normally, that methane would simply be released into the atmosphere (which is bad.)

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/26/methane_digester/

Farmer uses methane to make electricity

by Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio
June 27, 2008
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/news/features/2008/06/27_tpost_manure">Listen to feature audio

A small power plant is making electricity on a central Minnesota farm. It's not a lot of electricity, not even enough to power the farm itself. But the fuel source has excited advocates of renewable energy. The plant will make electricity by burning methane from cow manure.

Brooten, Minn. — The 200 cows on Jerry Jennisson's central Minnesota dairy farm make 1,100 gallons of milk every day, and they make even more manure, as much as 3,000 gallons daily.

In the past Jennisson stored the manure in lagoons and used it as fertilizer. But now he's also using it to make electricity.

It's a fairly simple process. The manure is piped from the barn to a 40 foot silo. It's heated to 100 degrees. That's when bacteria naturally present in the manure gets to work and makes methane.

…

Jennison can still use the manure for fertilizer after it's run through the process. Because it no longer contains methane, it's lost much of its odor, and doesn't emit as many greenhouse gases.

…

Think of the methane production as an improvement in the production of fertilizer.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/MethaneDigesters/MDToC.html

[NickB79]

6. Thanks for the more thorough explanation. I hereby stop the headbanging

:)

[kestrel91316]

5. Nope. They will generate biogas to burn for electricity by ANAEROBIC FERMENTATION

and the waste product is an extremely fertile SLUDGE.

This is a great idea. We do it with our human waste in Los Angeles at the Hyperion power plant, and lots of dairies are doing it now with cow manure.