Plant could be first in Idaho to turn manure into energy

Three dairymen are joining forces with an Idaho Falls engineering company to build what could be the state´s first plant to turn manure into energy.

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Steve, Brent and Brandon Whitesides worked out final details on the $1 million plant earlier this month with Intrepid Technology and Resources Inc., which has been involved in renewable energy projects throughout the West.

Work will begin on the anaerobic digester at the end of March, and the first two of seven planned tanks should be operating by late summer, Intrepid Vice President Jake Dustin said.

The process turns manure into methane with some water and a few solids as byproducts. The solids can be used as fertilizer and the water for irrigation.

But unlike other projects that look to turn methane into electricity, the Whitesides facility is looking at three alternatives — cleaning the gas so it could be fed directly into a gas pipeline with other natural gas, putting it in cylinders and selling it as a propane substitute or converting it to methanol for use in biodiesel fuel.

“Our purpose is, package that gas in a way that´s highly marketable,” Dustin said. “Everybody else has been focused on turning the gas into electricity. Our homework says that´s not an efficient use of that gas.”

One of the first two tanks will provide gas to the dairy to replace propane now used for heating. The other will be used by Intrepid to demonstrate the compression and packaging technology to potential customers.

The Whitesides project in Rupert is only the latest in south-central Idaho. Jerome dairyman John Beukers has received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay for part of a proposed $3 million digester on his farm, and the University of Idaho plans to place a small experimental digester at the Desert View Dairy near Filer.

But the Intrepid project calls for using a new technology that shortens the cycle for turning manure into methane from over 20 days to just five and increases the yield from 65 percent to 80 percent.

When all seven tanks are built, the annual revenues from the methane could reach $200,000 based on today´s gas prices, Dustin said. About half of that would be profit, and the rest would cover expenses of the system.

Intrepid will lease the site from the dairy for the value of the methane to replace its propane use. The company will own the facility and equipment.

The biogas industry in Idaho has the potential to exceed $10 million in annual revenue due to the state´s robust dairy operations, Intrepid financial consultant Steve Ellis said. Intrepid personnel estimate the western United States could generate $75 million in annual revenues through this process.