WENDELL, Idaho - A lot of methane gas is going to waste in Gooding County and neighboring Jerome County.
But not for long.
Wendell mayor Paul Isaacson says a 2003 census counted 357,000 cows in the two counties, including more than a quarter-million dairy cows on about 130 dairies in the immediate area.
"We are in the top six areas in the nation in density of cows per square mile," he said. "Odors that are generated from the cows are detrimental to tourists and whatever else. I don't mind dairy odor, but when it gets so concentrated that your eyes smart, we want to do something with the dairy air."
Isaacson said he has been working with an energy company, Intrepid Technology and Resources Inc., to process obnoxious manure into useful methane gas.
"If we could take half the cows and convert all their manure to methane," the mayor said, "it would produce about 35 million cubic feet of gas a day."
Dennis Keiser, president of ITR, said his company is going to build a methane production facility this year near Wendell. Digesters at dairies will be filled with manure, and the gas produced will go into a collection pipeline. The buried pipeline will bring gas to the central processing plant, where refinement will take out contaminants. The clean gas then will be sold to a local gas company for heating residential homes. Other buyers also have expressed interest.
Right now, Keiser said, only one dairy, West Point Farms, is committed to the project, and the initial pipeline will be about eight miles long. Over time, other dairies will join the system and there could be 40 to 50 miles of line "when we get done with the whole spaghetti of pipelines," Keiser said.
The system of local gas production for local use is called Methane to Market, and is used extensively in Europe, Keiser said.
"As far as we know, the Wendell project will be the first in the United States," he said. "It will be a maiden project for the United States."
Keiser said ITR chose Wendell to build its methane plant because there are nearly 400,000 cows in a concentrated area.
"That's a lot of cows producing a lot of manure that can be converted into very useful energy and can be done economically," he said.
Estimated cost to build the plant is $3 million to $4 million, Keiser said. With construction to begin this spring, the plant is expected to be in operation early next year.
Dairyman Edwin Southfield said he has 6,000 dairy cows at West Point Farms, where 5,200 are being milked around the clock. His second dairy, Southfield Home Dairy, has about the same numbers.
"It's all in the making right now," he said of plans to put a digester at West Point Farms. "There're just stakes in the ground right now. They're supposed to start in May."
Southfield said the digester removes obnoxious manure byproducts, including phosphorous, nitrogen and ammonia, and it gives him an alternative way to dispose of manure besides spreading it raw on fields. Soil is closely monitored, he said, and, over the years, the digester will help him keep soil samples under the manure limits legally allowed on his 6,700 acres.
"We'll be well in compliance," he said.
Keiser said his company's goal is to have 250,000 head of dairy cattle under production for the methane plant within five years. ITR will own and operate the plant, with West Point Dairy granting a 20-year lease on the property in exchange for ITR processing the approximate 20 million tons of annual animal waste that the dairy produces. West Point dairy will retain the mineral-rich liquid effluent and solid material that remains after processing. ITR also will provide the dairy with additional engineering services that maximize the effectiveness of the operation to the dairy.
Isaacson said the site of the methane refinery is a 32-acre parcel on the north side of Interstate 84 about 1.5 miles southeast of Wendell. The overall plan, he said, is to have the methane plant, a bio-diesel plant, and an ethanol plant all together, with the latter two powered by methane. The bio-diesel would process locally grown canola and safflower seeds into diesel fuel, while the ethanol plant would use corn shipped in from Nebraska and other Midwest states. A byproduct of the ethanol plant, distillers grain, is in demand as a feed for dairy cows.
Intrepid plans to build the bio-diesel and ethanol plants at the methane plant site, "but down the road," Isaacson said. "They want to get the methane plant going first. That's the plan. Everything is money-driven. As one thing works out, they'll move on to another."
Isaacson said ITR raised $20 million in funding for the methane plant, digesters and pipeline by sale of bonds through the Industrial Review Board. Cost of a digester, he said, amounts to about $350 per cow. Payback period of a digester - at the rate of 50 cents a day per cow - is about two years. The life span of a digester is 18 to 20 years.
A digester, he said, takes a continuous feed of manure at the rate of 10 gallons per minute.
"Water comes off the top, cellulose comes out the bottom, and gas comes off (into the pipeline)," he said. "Everything's in motion all the time. It's like a big living organism."
Cellulose, a fiber-like sawdust, can be used as bedding for cows instead of straw, Isaacson said. Manure from 1,000 cows produces half a cubic yard of cellulose per day. Cellulose also can be manufactured into particleboard for building. Digested water, full of nutrients, can be injected into pivot systems and put on fields to fertilize the ground.
"There's no odor to the water, the cellulose or the gas," Isaacson said. "It's all consumed in the digester."
Isaacson said he and other city officials are making plans now to annex the industrial park area into the city. With methane, bio-diesel and ethanol production plants, the city would have an improved tax base, farmers would have a steady market, more than 100 people would have employment, and the demand for fossil fuels would be reduced.
It's the way of the future, Isaacson said. "We could literally become independent of OPEC if we worked things right."
Intrepid Technology and Resources Inc. is an Idaho-based, publicly traded company specializing in renewable energy projects, with emphasis on production of bio-fuels derived from organic matter.
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