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| With 600,000 head of cattle in the area the Weld County site is perfect for the AD waste to energy facility |
Construction is expected to begin later this year on one of the largest Waste to Energy Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants in the U.S.
Heartland Renewable Energy (HRE) of Longmont, Colorado has been given the green light by county commissioners to build an 80 acre plant that will convert cattle manure into enough biogas to power a small city, reported the Denver Post.
Food waste from restaurants, breweries and grocery stores will also be used, as will as some fats, oil and grease.
The Weld County, based facility will be the first solid waste disposal site of its kind in Colorado and one of the largest in the U.S. It should be complete in about 18 months.
"Nothing of this size comes close to it, to my knowledge, anywhere else in the country," said Tom Haren, president of AGPROfessionals, which is developing the plant for Heartland and the owner of the site.
In all, about 24 covered anaerobic digesters will be in use at the plant. They will mostly manufacture methane gas, which will be scrubbed of impurities and then injected into a natural-gas pipeline. The air-tight digesters will be the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and will take organic waste such as manure from local dairies and feedlots, according to the company.
The commercially produced methane gas will be piped through a Colorado Interstate Gas line that runs near the facility, Haren said. Carbon dioxide also will be rendered for use by hospitals and construction operations.
What's left over will be turned into compost for local agriculture.
Haren went on to say that the Weld County site was ideal for the facility because of its proximity to one of the country's largest cattle populations - 600,000 head - and to a major interstate pipeline and metropolitan area.
The facility has had to overcome the fears of some commissioners with regard to smell and traffic problems, with Haren explaining that very little raw material will be stored on-site, and that the manure and other waste will be trucked during the daylight hours at a fairly controlled rate, he added, of about three to five trucks per hour.
In theory, the Heartland plant could power as many as 20,000 homes and will also help solve the problem of where to put agricultural waste in the county.
"It could power communities like Windsor, Frederick, Firestone and Dacono," Conway said. "It has huge potential. It's a win-win for us".
