From turkey droppings to kilowatts; The nation's first manure-burning power plant is expected to go into production in Benson, Minn., in June
BYLINE: Jackie Crosby, Staff Writer
Greg Langmo likes to say he was just a "fat, dumb and happy turkey farmer" until the summer of 1998. That's when he walked into a meeting of the Meeker County Board and got blindsided by a courthouseful of riled-up residents.
The mounds of manure he and other turkey growers were stockpiling on their farms to sell as fertilizer had become a nuisance, seemingly overnight.
"They said, `It smells, it creates runoff, it collects flies,'-" said Langmo, 48, who raises about a million turkeys a year on his farms near Litchfield. "The commissioners told me to solve the problem or they'd solve it for me."
Langmo placed an S.O.S. call to a British company he'd read about that was turning poultry litter into electricity. Nine years later, his solution has arrived: a $225 million plant an hour away in Benson that will turn poop into power.
The Fibrominn plant, in the heart of west-central Minnesota's turkey farming region, is scheduled to begin operating June 25. It'll be the nation's first large-scale power plant fueled by poultry manure.
More important, supporters say, it will be an important step in the country's quest to develop more sources of renewable energy. About half a million tons of turkey litter will be burned each year, generating enough energy for an estimated 50,000 households.
But the plant comes with controversy. Even in an era when renewable energy has moved from environmental wish lists to mainstream discussions embraced by President Bush, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and labor unions, the business of burning poultry manure has ruffled some feathers.
And not because of the smell, of which there promises to be none.
Turkey litter is a mixture of manure and bedding material, such as wood chips, straw, sunflower shells and feathers. It has provided a low-cost fertilizer to farmers for decades. Some of them now worry that their costs will go up and that there won't be enough litter for their fields if turkey growers can get a better price at the Fibrominn plant.
And although turkey litter may be a renewable source of energy - an estimated 2 million tons of it is generated each year statewide - it takes a lot of poop to make electricity. The mixture doesn't burn as hot as wood, which makes it a labor-intensive and expensive fuel source, critics say. They charge that the "gee-whiz" factor has discouraged research into more creative and economical renewable-energy solutions.
"Being green means being informed and being sophisticated," said David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an energy expert and longtime critic of the litter-burning project. "Simply because you're taking a renewable resource and turning it into something else does not mean that it's environmentally benign or economically worthwhile."
But the technology, which applies to turkey and chicken litter, appears to be catching on. As cities expand into farming areas, residents' concerns over disease and run-off pollution from manure are mounting.
Fibrowatt, which built three smaller litter-fired plants in England, has sold them and moved its headquarters to Newtown, Pa. The company has plans for five projects in the poultry-rich states of Arkansas and North Carolina in the next two years, and is looking at sites in Maryland and Mississippi, said Carl Strickler, the chief operating officer.
In Benson, a prairie town of about 3,300 about three hours west of the Twin Cities, many residents consider the litter-burning plant a sign of hope and pride, despite some early fears - and snickers.
Much of the work is highly automated and run by computers. The plant is expected to employ 30 to 35 full-time workers. Another 175 or so indirect jobs, including truck driving, are anticipated. With an ethanol plant sitting just across the road from Fibrominn, the city is attracting state and national attention as a center for renewable energy.
Benson Mayor Paul Kittleson admits that he considered the litter-burning plant a featherbrained idea at first. But after giving the sniff test to a plant in Thetford, England, he warmed to the idea.
"Believe me, if it had stunk, they wouldn't be here," he said.
How it works
The plant creates energy by putting a modern twist on centuries-old steam engine technology. Turkey litter is used to heat a giant water boiler, which creates steam. The steam then drives a turbine and generates electricity.
But figuring out how to burn poultry litter was no easy feat, said Fibrowatt CEO Rupert Fraser, a Scotsman whose father figured out how to do it while running his brother's chicken farm near Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands.
Because the litter is chemically diverse and has varying amounts of moisture from the manure and bedding, it's more difficult to burn than dry biomass, such as wood stems and other vegetable waste. Turning it into a consistent weight so it'll burn properly requires a lot of air to dry it out.
"It's difficult to burn; it's alkaline, which creates a foul smell, and the ash gets out of control and globs up the boiler," Fraser said. "What we've done is overcome the challenge of combusting animal fuel."
The Fibrominn plant uses "negative air pressure" to suck the air out of the burner, dry the litter and contain the stench.
After the litter is burned, the leftover ash is sent to an adjacent plant, where workers will add nitrogen, the only nutrient lost during combustion, and turn it into a concentrated fertilizer.
Xcel's mandate
Bringing the plant online fulfills a renewable-energy mandate that Xcel Energy was to have met by 2002. After deadline extensions and scaled-back expectations, the state's largest utility now is required to generate or buy 110 megawatts of renewable electricity.
The Benson plant will account for 55 megawatts of that, and Xcel has signed a 21-year purchase agreement. Plant officials say it will provide a steady load of power to the grid, unlike wind energy, which is contingent on the weather.
But even with federal tax incentives, Xcel is paying twice as much for Fibrominn's power than for wind energy, according to Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. He said it amounts to an $11-million-a-year subsidy that ratepayers ultimately will pay.
"That's almost a quarter of a billion in subsidies over the life of this contract," he said. "And in terms of projected power needs for Xcel or the state, this is a really, really tiny plant. From a systems analysis it stinks. And talking about it from an economic analysis, it stinks."
Xcel's Steve Wilson, a renewable-energy analyst, countered that a diversity of options is important. The litter-burning plant is the largest of the company's three biomass sites, which are located in downtown St. Paul and the Hibbing-Virginia area.
"Biomass has a lot of unexplored potential," he said. "This facility can go a long way to helping people achieve that potential."
Right now, Minnesota gets less than 1 percent of its electricity from biomass, and about 3 percent from wind energy, according to Xcel.
Langmo, the turkey farmer, said the plant will allow him and the 200 or so farmers under contract with Fibrominn to be good neighbors and to have a market for their turkey litter even when the ground is frozen.
"We've got enough energy needs in this country that we ought not pick one or the other," said Langmo, who was a lobbyist for Fibrowatt and now is the plant's fuel manager. "Having an alternative use for litter will allow our industry to continue to prosper and be an asset, not a burden."
Jackie Crosby - 612-673-7335
TALKIN' TURKEY
45 million: Minnesota turkeys raised annually
2 million: Tons of turkey litter produced each year statewide
85: Tons of turkey litter expected to be burned hourly when the Fibrominn plant is at peak capacity.
50,000: Households powered from burning the manure mix.
Sources: Minnesota Turkey Growers Association; University of Minnesota; city of Benson; Fibrowatt.
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