Wisconsin to get biogas plant
Daniel Bloom, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: News
Early in October, Quebec-based Sanimax, which transforms meat and food by-products into materials for other business sectors, and Ontario-based Stormfisher Biogas announced they would join forces and pocketbooks to construct 8 biogas plants throughout the Midwest, the cost of which would climb above $160 million.
Biogas plants, through anaerobic digestion, decompose agricultural and food processing byproducts into organic fertilizers and burnable methane. This creates a supply of electricity and natural gas for homes and businesses and fertilizer for the agricultural sector.
The companies estimate that the plants will process approximately 100,000 tons of organic byproducts each, resulting in about 2.6 megawatts of electricity annually, enough to power roughly 2600 homes. All eight will be able to power 20,000 homes.
Though the site of the first plant is still undetermined, the companies say it will likely rely on Sanimax's Deforest biodiesel fuel compound, which already processes restaurant grease, vegetable oils, and rendered animal fats.
The companies hope to have at least a few of the plants constructed by the end of 2009.
"Wisconsin is rich with potential to achieve energy independence," Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle said in June at the opening of a biogas plant in Waterloo. "Our state has the farms, the fields, the forests, and the factories to reduce our reliance on foreign fossil fuels, protect our environment, and add new growth to our economy."
Biogas plants, through anaerobic digestion, decompose agricultural and food processing byproducts into organic fertilizers and burnable methane. This creates a supply of electricity and natural gas for homes and businesses and fertilizer for the agricultural sector.
The companies estimate that the plants will process approximately 100,000 tons of organic byproducts each, resulting in about 2.6 megawatts of electricity annually, enough to power roughly 2600 homes. All eight will be able to power 20,000 homes.
Though the site of the first plant is still undetermined, the companies say it will likely rely on Sanimax's Deforest biodiesel fuel compound, which already processes restaurant grease, vegetable oils, and rendered animal fats.
The companies hope to have at least a few of the plants constructed by the end of 2009.
"Wisconsin is rich with potential to achieve energy independence," Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle said in June at the opening of a biogas plant in Waterloo. "Our state has the farms, the fields, the forests, and the factories to reduce our reliance on foreign fossil fuels, protect our environment, and add new growth to our economy."
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