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‘Bio-energy’ plants a bright idea for region, study says- Wastes offer power potential, but feasibility unclear

Up to 40 percent of Eastern Washington’s household power needs could be supplied by the region’s crop waste, manure and trash, a new study says.

Richard Roesler
Staff writer Spokesman Review

"There’s a huge amount of potential, and (the researchers) only touched the tip of the iceberg," said Bill Lamphere, the organics division manager for Quincy Farm Chemicals.

Idaho also is eyeing that iceberg. In July, Idaho’s state Energy Division reported that four plants could annually turn one-fourth of the Gem State’s wheat, barley and corn into 98 million gallons of ethanol.

Neither study, however, assessed how much of that biomass could be economically converted to power or fuel.

In Washington, Lamphere and other proponents envision wastes — wheat straw, damaged onions, chicken manure, lawn clippings, mint pressings — being brought to local plants, where the materials are mixed and rotted into methane gas. The gas would then be burned to generate electricity.

The process isn’t new. Modern landfills are designed to trap the methane from rotting garbage. Lamphere traveled to Germany and Denmark last year to tour half a dozen "bio-energy" plants, including one near Berlin that turns household food waste, old supermarket produce and dairy cow manure into electrical power. The heat generated by the methane-burning generators was piped to nearby homes.

Washington’s study found that Eastern Washington’s agricultural economy produces 4.3 million tons of such waste each year. Food processors generate tons of asparagus ends, crushed apples, grape pressings and potato peels. Feedlots and dairies produce vast quantities of manure. And growers are awash in wheat straw, culled apples, hops, and barley straw. Some of it’s used for animal feeds, but much of it is buried or dumped.

"Vast biomass energy is present in the region," wrote the authors of the report, a joint project of Washington State University, the Department of Ecology, and Spokane’s Inland Northwest Technology Education Center. And as things stand now, they wrote, much of that waste is a foul-smelling nuisance.

Waste digested to make methane, Lamphere said, creates two major byproducts: a liquid that’s useful as fertilizer, and solids that resemble potting soil.

Still, millions of tons of wheat straw or chicken manure don’t haul themselves to a power plant, and power plants aren’t free. A second Washington study is being planned to determine whether such plants make financial sense, and if so, where. The five Eastern Washington counties with the most waste are: Whitman, Grant, Franklin, Benton and Yakima Counties.

In Idaho, four ethanol plants would create nearly 2,000 permanent jobs and sent an extra $11 million a year in taxes to the state, according to the report by BBI International, a Colorado firm. Latah County, with its rolling fields of grain, was one of the highest-ranked counties.

Lewis Rumpler, INTEC’s CEO, sees reason for hope in several trends. Environmental regulations are tightening, making it more important to find alternative ways to dispose of some of the wastes, like manure.

Energy technology is improving, Rumpler said, prompting some to suggest that there may be a way to use methane to produce hydrogen for fuel cells, instead of burning the methane in power turbines. And as energy prices rise, he said, alternative energy sources make more sense.

Lamphere says that what the industry needs is a jump-start, courtesy of Olympia.

State lawmakers this spring granted tax breaks for the seed-crushers and manufacturing plants that make "bio-diesel" out of vegetable oils. If the state really wants to diversify its energy supply, Lamphere said, it should pass similar tax breaks to encourage the bio-energy industry. It should also ease regulations, so that bio-energy plants don’t fall under the rigorous rules for manufacturing plants, he said.

"I think it (bio-energy) is going to be a very compelling case at some point," said Rumpler. "And I think we’re going to get there sooner, rather than later."

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=093003&ID=s1418102&cat=section.business

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