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From Refuse to Resource:
Cnossen Dairy to produce renewable energy
 Frank, with his wife, Amber; daughter, Ariaan; and son, Sybrand. |
By this time next year, a DFA-member dairy farm located in west Texas is expected to become a contributing part of the nation’s power grid.
Jim and Frank Cnossen, who presently milk about 6,500 cows at their dairy outside of Hereford, Texas, recently signed a contract with Environmental Power Corporation’s subsidiary, Microgy, Inc., to construct and operate a renewable bioenergy plant at their dairy. The plant will use proven anaerobic digester technology to generate methane-rich biogas from manure. Construction began on the project in August 2008, and the system is projected to go online no later than the second or third quarter of 2009.
“It was primarily a management decision to partner with Microgy on this project,” says Jim Cnossen. “But there are also significant environmental benefits for any large livestock operation that reduces its environmental footprint, and we felt it was important for our dairy to become part of that movement.”
Microgy, which will own and operate the renewable energy production facility, will condition the biogas to natural gas standards and distribute it through a commercial pipeline. The purified biogas, called renewable natural gas (RNG), is Microgy’s branded, renewable, pipeline quality methane product. Microgy reports that at full capacity, the facility is expected to generate 635,000 MMBtu of pipeline grade renewable natural gas per year, which is the energy equivalent of 4.5 million gallons of heating oil and enough to heat about 11,000 homes.
Cnossen says it’s still unknown whether the renewable natural gas will be consumed in west Texas, or will be piped to other parts of the nation. “Microgy is still working with several natural gas companies,” he says, “but it’s possible the gas could tie into a pipeline all the way to Chicago.”
The Cnossen facility will include six large digester tanks and a mechanical gas conditioning system to extract methane-rich biogas from waste. Manure from the corrals will be directed into anaerobic digesters, where bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Adding substrate, such as animal and vegetable fat, will make the bacteria more active and substantially boost gas production.