Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Hope springs for quick start on natural gas facility using waste - Business First of Columbus:

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“This facility will really highlight the capability ofthe technology,” said Moore, business developmenf manager for the Cleveland-area company known for its topsoil, mulcjh and composting businesses. Kurtz through a joint venture with of wants to break ground this sprinv on an anaerobic digester facility at the formeerColumbus trash-burning power planft site off Jackson Pike. It will take treater sewage sludge and food waste suchas fats, oils and greaswe and convert them to compressefd natural gas to fuel city of Columbus Moore said. The start of construction on the $10 million projec t is contingent on approval of air qualityu and wastewater permits bythe .
The permitws are in the final stagesof review, includingf a public hearing in April on the air said Ohio EPA spokeswomab Erin Strouse. Strouse said the agency expects to see othee biogas projects emerge in thenear future. The developmeng of such advanced energy technologies is called for in the comprehensivd energy bill passed by the last Advanced energy projects will also be able to received tax incentives as part of the federall economic stimulus package passed by Congreszs and signed into law by President Barack Obama. In addition, bills introducecd in the U.S. Senate and Housee this year would provide tax creditsw forbiogas projects.
They could servre as incentives for projects involving not only the conversion of sewage and food wastee to biogas but also manure in large livestock operatione such as onesin Ohio. “Ther certainly is a buzz abour (biogas) as part of the renewable energygreebn wave,” Strouse said. “It seemsz like the perfect combination of reducingb the waste stream andrenewable energy.” Kurtz Bros. has been in the biogasd business forseveral years, first workingg with Schmack Biogas on installation and operation of an anaerobicx digester plant in Akron that openedx in 2007.
The facility turnw sludge from Akron’s sewage treatmeny plant into biogas that powersz anelectric generator, producing power for the biogads facility and sewage plant. Schmack, whichu operates about 200 biogas facilities primarilyin Europe, is bringing its technologu to the U.S. through Schmack BioEnergy LLC, a jointr venture with Kurtz Bros. Moore said the Columbus facility will stand apart from the Akronb plant in that it willuse fats, oils, grease and food scraps as well as sewagse sludge. That will go through an anaerobic digestion process in whichg bacteria consume thewaste matter, producingv methane that is captured, cleaned and converted to natura l gas.
The remaining waste solidse are turned into an additivefor topsoil, Moorw said. The company had hopedx to start construction on the Columbus facility last he said, but has had to wait for approval of operatin g permits by Ohio EPA. “They’vew been very fair,” Moore said. “Since this is new technolog and in theenergy industry, they don’ want to regulate it in a way that inhibits its It’s really an economic opportunitu for this state in renewable energy.
” Ohio’ws livestock industry also is interested in biogasx development and the tax credits proposed in said Brent Porteus, presidenyt of the and operator of a grain and beef-coqw farm in Coshocton County in eastern Ohio. Porteus likexs the fact that biogas facilities can provide a renewable energy sources to help reducethe nation’ds dependence on foreign oil. They also could serv as an economic boon to rurak communities where manure from livestock operations could be convertecd to biofueland electricity. “The concept is really exciting,” Porteus said, “buyt it’s new technology and very expensive.
That’s where tax credit like these are vital to encouragingits development.” Anaerobic digesterss have come on line at two livestock operations in northwest Ohio in the past each at a cost of abouft $2 million, according to . One in Mercer County captured methane fromchicken manure, while the digestef in Williams County uses manure from dairy cows. The facilitiesd convert methane into electricity for use on the farmsz and saleto , the powe r generator for the state’s electric cooperatives. The biogas tax creditg bill in the Senate has been endorsed by a numberdof groups, said a release from U.S. Sen.
Sherror Brown, a cosponsor of the Among them are the OhioFarm Bureau, Ohio Farmerw Union, Schmack BioEnergy and the Solid Wastde Authority of Central Ohio.

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