Power From Recycled Organics

Emerging Industry
POWER FROM RECYCLED ORGANICS
Young companies, new policies, creative investors
and university researchers are fueling the economy
and building our nation’s energy security.
Jerome Goldstein

A CONFERENCE sponsored by BioCycle magazine last month in Des Moines, Iowa was viewed “as part of the evidence of a profound revolution that is developing in our entire energy system.” What is particularly exciting was how the “Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling” Conference revealed the potency of the commercial infrastructure and research knowledge to create fuels like biogas and ethanol from biomass through anaerobic digestion, fermentation, gasification and composting.

“In addition to technologies, this Conference covers economics, environmental impacts, marketing and public policy,” declared Floyd Barwig, executive director of the Iowa Energy Center, in the opening plenary session. “These are pieces of a radical change whose nature, pace and eventual scope will only be understood with the benefit from hindsight. This is not a centrally planned change, but a messy chaotic process that can take a long time, and then all of a sudden, seem to appear overnight. And behind it all, research will drive this process.”

Barwig cited several examples of how major technological breakthroughs have occurred in bits and pieces: The railroads’ transition from steam locomotives to diesel locomotives for propulsion in the 1950s, some 50 years after “a lot of flops and disappointments along the way that included a Depression and World War II; The transition to personal computers from mainframe that was littered with start-up failures; The current widespread use of photovoltaics in offshore applications is also evidence that the pace of change in our world continues to pick up.

“At this Conference, we are talking about organic residuals and biomass conversion. We can look at composting, about making methane and other chemicals,” continued Barwig. “But what I challenge you to do is to step back and look at some other things going on in our world and see if what we are about here today fits into the pattern of the bits and pieces that will eventually form a dramatic revolution in our whole energy system. We have an improved understanding of the materials in organic residuals that we want to recycle and better processing technologies. We may not need some of the large mechanical systems we’ve relied on in the past; there may be other ways of getting things done.”

Floyd Barwig concluded his observations as follows:

“We have a whole new perspective on national security after September 11. The possibility of disentangling ourselves from the politics of oil takes on a much greater meaning. The thought of fuel cells that can run directly on ethanol from here and that our relationships in other parts of the world might not be dominated by oil takes on new meaning.

“The United States has about two percent of the world’s proven reserves. The Middle East has 67 percent. If we stay on this course, we will become increasingly dependent on part of the world where there are great questions. The work discussed here may become a significant portion of a new form of security, of personal and economic well-being, of our nation’s safety and health. ... I’d like to challenge you to look beyond the details presented at this Conference and think about the possibility that right now in Des Moines, Iowa, we may be witnessing the early to middle stages of a vast revolution. A revolution that will take years to build momentum, but then may change our whole world in the blink of an eye.”

IMPACT OF PUBLIC POLICIES ON RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY

According to Luc de Baere of Organic Waste Systems in Gent, Belgium, anaerobic digestion makes “Euro sense” in Europe where there will be almost 70 operating plants by the end of 2002. New plants have an average capacity of 40,000 tons per year. Explains de Baere:

“The difference with the United States is that the landfill crisis in Europe is real. We are so densely populated especially in areas like Belgium and Holland that there is not any space left to site a landfill in the next town or the next state. There is much opposition to landfills, and landfilling cost is about $60 to $80/ton. That is very expensive, and also many countries have a landfill tax — as much as $40/ton. All this really changes the playing field and drives opportunities for anaerobic digestion. There is also strong opposition to incineration; which must meet high air emission standards and costs between $80-$100/ton. All this means that in Europe, composting, digestion and biological treatment can compete. (In contrast, in the U.S., there are still landfills charging as little as $10/ton.)”

\ De Baere points out that regulatory measures in Europe play a significant role. As noted above, European countries such as the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium and several others are taxing what goes into a landfill. Some countries are experimenting with outright bans of landfilling organics.

The European Union landfill directive has been accepted. “This is a law that specifies that the amount of biodegradable waste going to the landfill by 2006 has to be reduced by 25 percent compared to the 1995 level by 50 percent in 2009, and 65 percent in 2016,” explains de Baere. “This directive will also have a big impact on biological treatment opportunities.”

In addition, European countries have also instituted a “renewable energy bonus” — $0.02 to $0.03 per kilowatt hours as an additional bonus when green power is generated from biomass. The goal is to increase the average in 2000 of three percent renewable electrical energy to 12 percent by 2010. If power companies do not have sufficient “Green Certificates” to verify that figure, they will have to pay an $0.11/kw/hr fine. (That fine represents a further incentive to produce energy from MSW — about $10 to $20/ton.)

“A most important factor favoring composting and anaerobic digestion in Europe is the implementation of ‘source separated collection’ of garbage,” continues de Baere. “We tend to have more fresh food in Europe, therefore more food waste. We don’t have the kitchen sink grinder, so all the food waste ends up in our garbage bags. Yard trimmings (mostly grass clippings with some leaves), food waste and other ‘compostable trash’ are collected together, and there is a steady tonnage throughout the year. (Only December through March is there a decrease.) This represents a sizable fraction of the waste stream, and that’s why these source separated collection programs have spread all over Europe.”

In the coming years, de Baere believes that more such policies will be implemented in the United States — such as dealing with greenhouse gases being emitted from landfills, enforcing diversion goals that states have mandated, introducing landfill taxes as they have in Europe. “I hope that in the next few years, we could finally be successful in introducing anaerobic digestion in the United States,” de Baere concludes.

LOCAL INPUTS TO THE NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Kay Martin is a solid waste manager with the Ventura County, California — population 700,000 — which is adjacent to Los Angeles County, has a very strong agricultural economy and open space policy. In her presentation at the Renewable Energy Conference, she focused on how local solid waste managers can “help us step up to the next industrial revolution and advance the national bioenergy initiative. In other words, how can we become a change agent at the local level and make things happen in our communities.” In Kay Martin’s opinion, the energy value of our biomass in the waste stream is being lost and treated principally as a management problem rather than as a product that we want to put back into the marketplace.”

Her main point to solid waste professionals and energy analysts: Anything you can make out of petroleum, you can make out of renewable biomass.

CONVERTING INDUSTRY RESIDUALS INTO ETHANOL

Ethanol is a clean burning fuel that is being converted from waste biomass today, J.D. Broder, R.A. Harris and J.T. Ranney recently reported in BioCycle — noting that the technology has been developed by private industry and in partnership with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Public Power Institute. In blended gasoline, ethanol serves as an oxygenate — and could be used as a replacement for MTBE which is a water contaminant and suspected carcinogen. (MTBE has been banned in 13 states, and a national ban on using MTBE in fuels has been introduced to Congress.

Final development logistics are now being arranged by the Masada Resource Group based in Birmingham, Alabama for a municipal solid waste to-ethanol plant in Middletown, New York. The project has been fully permitted by state and federal agencies with ground breaking scheduled in 2002.

The Recycling and Ethanol Production Facility is permitted to process 230,000 tons of municipal solid waste and 72,000 dry tons of biosolids annually. The plant is also expected to produce 9.5 million gallons of ethanol per year. The $100 million dollar-plus facility will create over 350 union construction jobs according to Masada, which estimates the project will inject $38 million each year into the local economy once operations begin in 2003.

Most industrial by-products that are being used to produce ethanol focus on starch and sugar residuals from food processing or wood product manufacturing. These current facilities include:

Georgia-Pacific Corp. — Paper waste-to-ethanol facility in Bellingham, Washington produces seven million gallons of ethanol per year.

Kraft, Inc. — Using cheese whey in its Melrose, Minnesota facility, Kraft produces 2.6 million gallons of ethanol per year.

Merrick & Co./Coors Brewing Co. — Facility produces 1.5 million gallons of ethanol per year from brewery waste in Golden, Colorado.

Miller Brewing Co. — Converting brewery waste, Miller generates 700,000 gallons of ethanol per year in Olympia, Washington.

Parallel Products, Inc. — Company turns beverage waste into 12 million gallons of ethanol per year in Louisville, Kentucky, Bartow, Florida, and Rancho Cucamonga, California.

All totaled, industrial manufacturers generate approximately 31 million gallons of ethanol each year according to the Renewable Fuel Association’s August 2001 figures. That only represents 1.4 percent of total production (2.2 billion gallons). However, as process industries learn to profit from their waste streams (and as demand/pricing for ethanol increases), ethanol production is anticipated to grow.

COMMERCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

Forty-one years ago, in the first issue of a magazine now known as BioCycle (sister publication to In Business), a report was published on how a small anaerobic digester could provide an economic solution to the treatment of farm wastes. The report was written by Clarence G. Golueke, who was then conducting research at the Sanitary Engineering Laboratory of the University of California in Richmond. Dr. Golueke — who celebrated his 90th birthday last month — wrote the following:

“Reduction to a stable humus by anaerobic digestion seems to offer great promise for a relatively inexpensive and yet completely sanitary method of disposing of manure. Described most simply, the process consists of dumping or flushing all wastes into an airtight container in which bacteria can break down the organic matter to form humus and a combustible gas. It makes possible the efficient and economical recovery of some of the waste carbon as methane for fuel. It produces humus and nutrients for use on soils. Both liquid and solid wastes may be treated in one operation.”

Today, solid waste managers, planners, consultants, developers and a host of others are catching up to Clarence Golueke and early advocates of the potential in anaerobic digestion (AD). The BioCycle database of companies, consultants, research trials and operational (or soon-to-be operational) projects is rapidly swelling.

What follows are reports of how the commercial infrastructure for anaerobic digestion and methane recovery is firming up now and the early results of that increasing strength.

CALIFORNIA’S DAIRY POWER PRODUCTION PROGRAM

The California Energy Commission (CEC) is providing $9,640,000 for its Dairy Power Production Program for manure to methane developments. The overall goal is to develop commercially proven biogas electricity systems that can help California dairies offset purchase of electricity, as well as provide environmental benefits (especially air and water quality) by improved treatment of livestock wastes.

The CEC target is to install by summer 2002 a total of over five megawatts of dairy biogas systems capable of generating over 30 million kw hours/year of electricity. Funds will be used to assist dairies in design and construction of digestion systems, purchase of equipment for biogas electricity systems, and to provide technical assistance to dairies with biogas systems.

Several California projects are now in the pilot development stage with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) which serves over 700,000 people in San Bernardino County. One project involves Synagro Technologies, designed to process manure from more than 2,700 cows in the region — using AD technology provided by AnAerobics, Inc. The Inland Empire organization is also working with CH2M Hill on another biogas and utilization program.

IOWA ON THE BI0ENERGY TRAIL

Last spring, the Bluestem Solid Waste Agency in Cedar Rapids, Iowa issued an RFP on an Anaerobic Digestion Feasibility Study for Linn County, Iowa. The scope of the study — requested by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Bluestem — included an evaluation of success and failure of AD systems in other localities; analysis of digester design options; identification of the county’s organic residuals suitable for AD; quality, quantity and uses for AD by-products; siting and permitting issues; and analysis of economic factors including capital and operational costs.

As explained in the Request for Proposals (RFP), Linn County and the city of Cedar Rapids formed the Bluestem Solid Waste Agency in 1994 and have aggressively diverted materials from its two landfills to meet the state’s 50 percent waste reduction goals. Its programs include a large windrow composting operation. In 1999, a waste sort showed that more than one-half of material still being landfilled was organic. “Numerous large food/organic industries reside in Cedar Rapids and Linn County,” pointed out Bluestem officials. They also made this statement: “Bluestem desires to apply this technology to the organic fraction of the solid waste stream. We are also open to considering the addition of agricultural wastes if they make the project more feasible. ... We believe that anaerobic digestion will become economically feasible sometime in the next decade in the United States, if not already feasible in some areas.” Marketable

by-products from a Bluestem AD facility include (but are not limited to) compost, acids, energy recovery (e.g., methane/ steam/electricity), and potential for future greenhouse gas/carbon sequestration credits.

Iowa is also home to several innovative AD projects on farms, including those at Top Deck Farm (dairy) and Crawford Farm (swine). Another farm — Swine USA — serves as an AgSTAR demonstration site with its complete mix digester.

MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF AgSTAR PROGRAM

Kurt Roos is manager of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AgSTAR Program, which has been instrumental in launching biogas recovery on many farms. At the upcoming BioCycle West Coast Conference in San Francisco, California, March 4-6, 2002, Roos will explain specifics of how AgSTAR cooperates with dairy digestion programs in New York and California. Right now, there is a great need for performance evaluation as the biogas industry moves forward. Comments Roos:

“Both the California and New York programs have evaluation components and that is one reason that AgSTAR collaboration is desired. These are protocol based comparative evaluations based on cost/benefit and environmental performance. The protocol is developed to provide an unbiased credible evaluation of commercial scale systems. Systems can then be compared based on a common set of criteria. Evaluation also includes the baseline waste management system for each state industry, i.e., pigs or dairy. This is important because it shows the performance of conventional industry waste practices in relation to innovative systems and answers the question: ‘What does your investment really get you?’

On its Web site — www.epa.gov/agstar/tech — the AgSTAR program lists its “Guide to Technology Providers.” It includes consultants, developers, manufacturers/distributors of covers, manufacturers/distributors of engines, community organizations and general energy services. Under each company and contact information appears data listing number of years in business, biogas projects, employees and farm projects. It’s a worthy resource — to be added to regularly — and a reflection of the commercial support system and infrastructure in the anaerobic industry.

Home to more than 1,800 cows, Tinedale Farms in Wrightstown, Wisconsin is using cow manure to generate electricity — producing 750 kilowatts from 60,000 gallons of manure daily in an anaerobic digester. The methane is used to fuel a small power plant. The project is a cooperative effort between Tinedale Farms, Wisconsin Electric and Ag Environmental Solutions, LLC. Ag Environmental owns and operates the manure digester facility. Wisconsin Electric purchases the the generated electricity for resale.

“I’m very proud that we’ve developed a way to turn our waste into renewable energy and protect the land for future generations,” said Carl Theunis of Tinedale Farms. At the Iowa conference, he and Leslie Cooperband of the University of Wisconsin described the role of the Fox River Valley project which seeks to manage growth by better using municipal, agricultural and industrial waste streams.

MORE COMPANIES SUPPLY THE SYSTEMS

At its Montgomery, Minnesota vegetable production facility, Seneca Foods, Inc. is operating an organic solid and liquid residuals stream treatment and energy production system. Wastewater generated by the processing operation was originally land applied; corn and pea solids were stored on site and/or hauled to local farmers as feed, but expansion would have required a revised discharge permit. Seneca plans to install a system developed by AnAerobics, Inc. of Aurora, New York. According to the company, its treatment and energy production system can process a hydraulic flow of 1.2 mgd with 75,000 to 120,000 tons of vegetable solids annually. Alliant Energy of Cedar Rapids, Iowa is participating as the utility which will use the power generated.

In Fresno, California, Onsite Power Systems has been licensed by the University of California (UC) to use a two-phased, closed-loop anaerobic digestion system developed by Ruihong Zhang of UC Davis. A fuel cell installation project is nearing completion at the Las Virgenes wastewater treatment facility in Calabasas, California to convert waste methane gas into electrical power for the facility. According to Dave Konwinski, co-owner of Onsite, the company is also marketing the system to racetracks to handle stable manure and straw combined with washdown water.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

Since we have returned to our Pennsylvania editorial offices from the Des Moines Renewable Energy Conference, we have spoken with a number of persons who attended. One representative of the banking and investment sector gave us this message: “It was a great opportunity for us to think about what technologies exist and how they might develop as businesses. In order for this industry to blossom, we’re going to need to analyze successes and failures, both in terms of technologies and business/financial strategies. This conference gave us the chance to build for the future.”

Each day since our return, we are in contact with a company involved with a project to utilize biomass and get us further away from what one Conference speaker calls the “fossil fuel happy hour.” Our staff here is preparing to hold a similar event in 2002 — so we all can continue to build a truly renewable energy future more rapidly and more effectively.