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Program to Fund Manure-to-Energy Projects
By Chris Torres
Farmers Have Until Feb. 1 to Apply
It’s widely known that in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, there are more nutrients being applied to fields than are actually needed.
On Oren Heatwole’s 400,000-broiler farm just outside Dayton, Va., in that state’s Shenandoah Valley, only 40 acres are available for him to spread the 814 tons of poultry litter produced from his birds each year.
“The phosphorus levels on my farm are high,” Heatwole said. Most of it gets sold to farmers on the open market.
Still, with that much manure and not a lot of land to spread it on, Heatwole feels like he has a constant target on his back in terms of his farm’s impact on the environment.
“My goal is to take my poultry litter and turn it from a liability into an asset,” he said.
So when the chance came to participate in a program that would use the manure as a heating source for his two broiler houses, he jumped right in.
“It’s something that’s the future of agriculture. It’s a matter of getting it done and getting it started,” he said.
His farm is one of several that will be studied as part of a watershedwide manure-to-energy project being organized by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Kristen Evans, project manager, said the plan is to get pilot manure-to-energy projects set up in each of the watershed’s “phosphorus hotspots,” including the Eastern Shore, portions of West Virginia, Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and Lancaster County.
The foundation is coordinating funding from several different sources, including an $848,000 USDA Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG), a $645,000 joint grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and matching grants including $625,000 from the Chesapeake Bay Funder’s Network.
Evans estimates that around $873,000 will be donated by farmers and ag vendors in the form of time, resources, discounts on equipment and technical support.
She said the goal is to evaluate each project over the next three years on its environmental and economic impacts as well as figure out which technologies work best on certain size farms.
“Our interest is about getting the information about all the options out there,” Evans said. “We really see our role as making sure all the information is out there on all of the choices.”
Don McNutt, administrator of the Lancaster County Conservation District, said he is actively trying to recruit farmers for up to two similar projects in Lancaster County.
McNutt said the ideal candidate would have between four and eight poultry houses and is in compliance with state laws pertaining to nutrient management and reporting.
Heatwole is getting a poultry combustion unit set up on his farm.
The litter from his birds will be used as a fuel source to generate heat for his two broiler houses, replacing the gas he currently uses.
Heatwole estimates it would save him between $10,000 and $15,000 a year in heating bills and will give him drier houses, which in turn will result in healthier and better performing birds.
The system, developed by the Irish Co., uses a combustion process to generate heat from the poultry litter. The heat is then sent through an exchanger, which heats water. The hot water will then be sent through radiators set up in each house, generating heat.
The litter is turned into phosphorus-rich ash, which could be used as a separate fertilizer that would replace the litter he currently sells.
Heatwole went to Ireland to see one of these systems in action and thought it would be something that could work on his farm.
“If I can take my litter and heat my houses and have very little upkeep, very little maintenance, I would consider it a success,” he said, adding that he would eventually like to generate electricity from the system.
For his part, Heatwole used Farm Service Agency (FSA) money as well as his own money to build a new litter storage building as well as a building to accommodate the combustion unit on the farm.
He will also be monitoring the unit and is planning on hosting tours and field days to show it off.
Construction is expected to begin in the spring.
Bob Monley, general manager of Farm Pilot Project Coordination Inc., which is overseeing installation of the projects, said the hope is to get at least three of these projects up and running by fall of this year.
The success of these systems is something state officials will likely be watching closely. Virginia wants to move 75,000 tons of poultry manure out of its share of the Chesapeake Bay watershed as part of its commitment to the bay’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), or pollution diet, and considers poultry litter burning as a possible option.
There was already talk of putting in such a facility in Page County, in the north central part of the state, but plans fizzled as a result of public opposition amid concerns of environmental impacts to the community.
Pennsylvania, in its watershed implementation plan (WIP), has made it clear that it wants to push advanced technology on farms as a way to solve its nutrient management issues.
A study commissioned this past fall for the Chesapeake Bay Commission, the tri-state government agency charged with coordinating legislative issues pertaining to the bay in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, showed that in the 11 most animal-intensive counties in the entire watershed, about 3.8 million tons of manure was produced in excess of crop needs.
Monley said manure holds many possibilities for producing energy and that combined with the right system could solve the problem of what to do with a product that farmers see as an asset, but is seen as a liability to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
“Manure has a lot of nutrients that can be redeployed. It has energy value and it has water. Those are the three biggies we want to find value in to monetize manure in a different way,” he said.
At Dave Lovell’s Old Mills Farm in Melfa on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a poultry litter gasifying unit is being put in to see if Lovell can find an alternative use for the 2,400 tons of manure that his 1.8 million birds produce in a given year.
Like Heatwole, Lovell has to find a buyer for his manure since he doesn’t have any land to spread it on.
The system works by processing litter in a heating chamber. The heat from the gasifier in the chamber will be put in a heat exchanger, which in turn will be used to heat water. The water will then be put into another heat exchanger, with water on one side and refrigerant on the other.
Electricity generation happens when the refrigerant boils and expands, turning an adjoining turbine.
Monley estimates the size of the system will be between 25 and 50 kilowatts.
Lovell said the program will benefit farmers because they will be able to see technologies in action on farms of various scale.
“These technologies are all moving. They get more mature everyday, but the reality is we want to get something that is a payoff for the farmer,” he said. “In the end, it has to make money and has to be cost justified.”
Farmers wanting to participate in the program have until Feb. 1 to apply. Farmers in Lancaster County should contact Don McNutt at the Lancaster County Conservation District, 717-299-5361, ext. 115.
All other farmers can contact Jane Corson Lassiter, the Chesapeake Bay regional director for Farm Pilot Project Coordination Inc., at 727-348-9342, 813-222-3272 or jane.lassiter@fppcinc.org.
Source: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/-Program-to-Fund-Manure-to-Energy-Projects-
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