by jboullion | Apr 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a case study of the Eau Claire Waste Water Treatment Plant:
The City of Eau Claire generates methane gas from its Waste Water Treatment Plant to help copower the facility. The following is a summary of computed savings at the plant using the methane gas produced during the Anaerobic Digestion of biosolids, and the generators to unitize this gas. The volume of the plant’s gas production is 24,000 kWh or as indicated . . . .
Thus, an estimate of $203,868 of annual savings occurs at the Waste Water Treatment Plant using a by‐product of the anaerobic digestion process. However, because of the higher price of energy, the City has been running the generators typically from 18‐24hours per day, so the savings have been greater. The City has been using this gas in generators for over 27 years, so the savings have been very significant.
by jboullion | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Jim Massey in The Country Today:
RICHLAND CENTER – While low commodity prices are a challenge for farmers, they could provide an opportunity for the biomass industry to grow in Wisconsin, farmers and landowners were told March 6 at a biomass briefing.
Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development Council officials shared the results of three biomass studies at the briefing, held to coincide with a quarterly council meeting.
Council Coordinator Steve Bertjens said southern Wisconsin has become a prime target for biomass production and the studies were conducted to determine the economic feasibility of growing and harvesting the material.
Gov. Jim Doyle recently announced that the UW-Madison Charter Street Power Plant would burn 250,000 tons of biomass per year by 2012 and power plants in Cassville and Jo Daviess County, Ill., will use a combined 800,000 tons of biomass per year. Officials said the challenge will be coming up with that much biomass to burn.
Three Southwest Badger RCandD projects – a biomass inventory and analysis project, switchgrass establishment and harvesting demonstrations, and the true costs of harvesting woody biomass in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area – are in the works. . . .
Brett Hulsey, president of Better Environmental Solutions, said if all of Wisconsin’s biomass reserves were used for energy production it could displace about half of the coal burned in the state.
“We are a biomass Saudi Arabia,” Hulsey said. “We could use wood waste, corn stover, prairie grasses and even dairy manure as energy sources.”
by jboullion | Mar 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nathaniel Shuda in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune:
More than a year after garnering $30 million in federal grant money to build an ethanol plant in Wisconsin Rapids, NewPage officials continue to consider the project’s viability, a company spokeswoman said.
Although the Miamisburg, Ohio-based papermaker has completed a preliminary phase of the study into the project’s viability, spokeswoman Shannon Semmerling expects the study to last until the end of 2009.
“The (Department of Energy) and NewPage will (then) review the findings and determine how to proceed,” Semmerling said. “I would expect that we will learn more about Project Independence as 2009 comes to a close.”
In January 2008, the Energy Department selected NewPage as one of four companies nationwide to receive a total of $114 million that will be made available to build small-scale biorefineries.
The refinery will produce about 370 barrels of biofuel a day — or about 5.5 million gallons a year — out of wood chips and mill residue, according to the Energy Department. The resulting fuel will replace natural gas at the mill and can be converted into renewable diesel fuel.
by jboullion | Mar 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Jim Massey in The Country Today:
PLATTEVILLE – Tim Zauche believes a community manure digester could be a win-win situation for UW-Platteville and dairy farmers near the city.
The UW-Platteville chemistry and engineering-physics professor is studying the feasibility of building an anaerobic digester on campus or at the university’s farm to convert manure into a variety of energy sources. Area farmers have expressed interest in the concept, he said.
“The reason I got into this is I want to help farmers become more profitable and help the environment,” Zauche said. “If we’re not going to help the farmers’ bottom line, why even do it?”
Zauche met with about 25 Platteville-area dairy farmers earlier this year to discuss the project.
“They were like, ‘Hey, milk prices are down, we’re strapped for capital. We don’t want to own (the digester), but we can see the benefits of using it,’ ” Zauche said.
Zauche said he’s not sure who would own the digester. It could be set up as a farmer cooperative, owned and operated by the university, or leased to a private firm that would operate it.
He estimated it would cost $1.5 million to $2 million for a digester that would process manure from 1,200 cows. About a dozen farmers are seriously interested in the project, Zauche said.
One of those farmers is Steve Weigel, who operates a 100-cow dairy farm about a mile north of Platteville. He said he would like to discontinue hauling his manure daily and haul to a digester instead.
by jboullion | Mar 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by the University of Wiscosnin-Green Bay:
GREEN BAY – A grant from Wisconsin Focus on Energy will allow researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Environmental Management and Business Institute the opportunity to evaluate the economic and environmental outcomes of converting marginal agricultural areas into biomass-yielding grasslands for electricity and heat generation in the state.
Starting in July, UW-Green Bay students and professors will use the $164,853 grant to study the multiple benefits of converting non-ideal farmland into sustainable grassland areas that can be used to produce bio-fuels for energy and heat production.
Planting agricultural crops in poorly drained or marginal soil areas may be delayed, prevented or unprofitable for traditional farming. However, these areas may be ideally suited for native, mixed-species grasslands that can withstand harsher conditions, yet still be harvested for bio-fuel production, researchers say.
Targeted plantings of these grasslands between agricultural fields and aquatic systems could also reduce nutrient and sediment runoff into watersheds, thus limiting pollution and improving the health of the state’s valuable water resources.
“Future energy demands will only be met with diverse and environmentally sustainable energy sources,” said Prof. Matt Dornbush, Natural and Applied Sciences. “This project seeks to answer if it is economically and environmentally feasible to use biomass-based energy produced through the growth of native grasslands to help fill those needs.
