Minnesota turkey farmers say a manure-fueled power plant could reduce stinky stockpiles

By E. M. Morrison

In the search to make electric power from renewable “green” sources, the country has turned to water, wind, sun and biomass.

Now some Minnesota turkey farmers are fired up about generating power from poultry manure. A coalition of farmers and civic leaders is working with a British company,
Fibrowatt, to build a $70 million manure-fired power plant in central Minnesota.

Minnesota recently regained its ranking as the top turkey-producing state, growing more than 46 million birds a year. By some estimates, the state produces over two million tons of turkey and broiler waste — the fuel for “poultry power.” The proposed plant would burn nearly half a million tons of that waste every year, generating enough electricity to supply 67,000 households.

Litter for electric lights

The power project began a year ago, when Meeker County turkey farmer Greg Langmo contacted Fibrowatt. The London-based company has commercialized technology for making electricity from poultry litter, which is a mixture of manure and wood chips or other bedding material.

Fibrowatt’s three power plants in England consume 800,000 tons of litter a year to generate 64.2 megawatts. The eight-year-old company wants to build similar biomass plants in Europe, Canada and the United States.

At Langmo’s invitation, Fibrowatt officials visited Minnesota last fall and surveyed the turkey industry. They found plenty of interest in a plant and plenty of fuel, Langmo says. The state’s industry is concentrated in six central counties: Todd, Morrison, Stearns, Swift, Kandiyohi and Meeker. In February, these counties formed the Central Counties Partnership for Power, or “C2P2,” to promote the poultry-power venture.

The coalition got a boost this spring when the state legislature earmarked $200,000 to study the project. This summer, Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson toured Fibrowatt plants in England. Now, more than a dozen communities in the region are vying for a plant, including Litchfield, Willmar, Benson and Melrose.

Power jobs and dollars

A poultry-litter power plant would bring economic and environmental benefits to the entire central region, says Joe Egge, executive director of the Meeker County Development Corporation and co-chair of C2P2.

The proposed plant would generate 38 megawatts of electricity and employ up to 50 skilled workers, Egge says. Further, the plant would create about 100 support jobs — mainly in manure transportation.

The annual economic boon to the region? “We estimate between eight and 10 million dollars a year,” Egge says.

Beyond that, burning poultry litter for energy would create a huge new market for manure, says Langmo, who raises one million turkeys a year near Litchfield. Already, turkey and broiler growers in the region have agreed to supply three-fourths of the manure needed to fuel the proposed plant, according to Eric Jenkins, Fibrowatt’s U.S. representative.

Pushed for solutions

Equally important are the environmental benefits of burning poultry litter, Langmo says. He and other supporters believe that burning manure would relieve the waste management problems associated with large, concentrated poultry operations. Farmers would have an alternative to stockpiling tons of manure outdoors for much of the year.

“It would allow us to sell our manure during the times when we can’t land spread it,” Langmo says.

In fact, public objections to manure stockpiling in Meeker County — home to some of the state’s largest poultry farms — first launched the Fibrowatt project. Tired of complaints about the smell of manure, the Meeker County commissioners last year ordered local poultry farmers to “solve this manure problem, or we’ll solve it for you,” Langmo says.

Skeptics worry about trading the stench of stockpiled manure for the stench of burning manure. So in July, farmers, government officials, and representatives of C2P2 and AURI went to England to get a close-up look — and whiff — of manure-fired power.

The look and smell of it

Fibrowatt’s power stations in England buy manure from nearby poultry farms and transport it directly from the barns in closed trucks. At the power plant, a special furnace burns the waste at high temperatures, creating steam to drive electric generators. The process leaves behind a nitrogen-free ash that is sold as fertilizer.

Electricity is sold to utility companies, which distribute it through local transmission lines.

Jack Johnson, AURI waste utilization scientist, toured Fibrowatt’s 38-megawatt power station at Thetford in East Anglia, a model for the proposed Minnesota plant.

“We visited on three different days,” Johnson says, “and found little odor.” Poultry litter burns clean and emits few pollutants, he says. The Thetford plant, located in a national forest, meets air and water quality standards similar to U.S. standards.

Help from the Brits

Fibrowatt’s poultry litter plants get hefty operating subsidies from the British government. The subsidies, funded by a tax on fossil fuels, cut the cost of poultry power by about a third. It’s all part of a comprehensive energy policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and converting ten percent of the country’s electric power to renewable sources.

To compete with cheaper fossil fuels, a U.S. plant is likely to need similar subsidies. “Sure, fossil fuel is cheaper,” says Langmo. But the environmental costs of non-renewable fuels “are not reflected in their price.”

At the federal level, a 1.7-cent tax credit is proposed in the Roth Poultry Electric Energy Power Act, or PEEP. If poultry manure were added to a list of Minnesota-approved renewable fuels, waste-fired power might also qualify under a 1994 Minnesota law requiring Northern States Power Company to invest in 175 megawatts of biomass power. Such incentives would reduce the cost of poultry litter power from about 7.5 cents a kilowatt to about 4 cents — a competitive rate.

The project probably won’t go forward without some kind of financial incentives, acknowledges Jenkins. “We are slightly more expensive,” he says, “but we are very much cleaner.” And burning poultry manure, “a proven technology,” is the cheapest form of biomass power, he says.

A manure shortage?

Some critics question the wisdom of burning poultry manure, a valuable resource with a ready market.

“I would just as soon see the manure go back to the land,” says Terry Carlson of Parkers Prairie, who farms 3,000 acres in Otter Tail County and raises 230,000 turkeys a year. The manure from his poultry operation goes back on his corn and edible bean fields. In addition, “I still buy manure,” he says. “The crops do much better with manure than commercial fertilizer.”

Carlson imports the extra manure from a grow-out facility about 40 miles away. He says he has tried to buy manure produced closer by, “But I never got my name to the top of the waiting list. The farmers in our area have already learned the lesson of what poultry manure can do for your land.”

Commercial spreaders agree that there’s strong demand for poultry manure in central Minnesota, where crop farmers are paying as much as $40 an acre to have it delivered and applied.

Poultry Litter Services of Raymond, for example, spreads 50,000 tons of poultry manure a year. “I have a waiting list at certain times of the year,” says owner Chad Liebl. “And some customers give me orders a year in advance to be sure they get some.” Every year, he adds, “I turn away customers. And that’s without advertising.”

It doesn’t pay to transport litter more than about 40 miles, Liebl says, but finding local buyers has not been a problem. Liebl, a commercial spreader for 15 years, estimates that he could increase his business by 50 percent — if he could get the manure. “I could widen out the area where I spread it.”

Steve McCorquodale, a commercial applicator from Paynesville and an outspoken critic of Fibrowatt, agrees: “There’s already an inadequate supply of manure.” Fibrowatt would cut out commercial spreaders and other entrepreneurs, who are “trying to build a diversified number of alternative uses for poultry manure,” McCorquodale says.

On the other hand, Bill Rothfork of Custom Spreading Service in Melrose says burdensome paperwork and regulations tend to weigh on farm demand for manure. Fibrowatt proponents say there is plenty of poop to go around. Fibrowatt would use only a portion of each farmer’s litter, Jenkins says. Moreover, he adds, Fibrowatt would support environmentally sustainable poultry expansion in the region, ultimately increasing the supply of manure.

Green power is coming

Fibrowatt, which expects to spend $2 million developing a Minnesota plant, is now securing manure contracts and power purchase agreements. By the end of the year, the company hopes to start the lengthy permitting process.

AURI continues to be an active player in the development of renewable energy from biomass. In addition to providing technical assistance to C2P2 on the Fibrowatt project, AURI is working with the Minnesota Valley Alfalfa Producers on a plan to gasify alfalfa stems for electricity.

AURI is also working on uses for soy-based biodiesel fuel and recently began testing technology that burns methane from manure.