Processing Arkansas poultry farm litter with biomass gasification would generate renewable energy and improve water quality.

A policy memo sent to Tyson Renewable Energy

Tyson Renewable Energy
renewableenergyinfo@tyson.com

Re: Processing Arkansas poultry farm litter with biomass gasification would generate renewable energy and improve water quality.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to ask your consideration in deploying biomass gasification to process poultry farm litter in Arkansas. Processing Arkansas poultry farm litter with biomass gasification would generate renewable energy and improve water quality. I grew up rural northwest Arkansas, and am concerned with declining water quality that results from frequent over-application of litter as a fertilizer. By combusting litter in a gasification unit to generate clean electricity and heat and using the ashes as fertilizer, water pollution problems would be avoided. My initial calculations indicate this could be deployed at 352 poultry farms in Arkansas, annually processing 490,000 short tons of litter and displacing more than 150,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, with minimal internal rates of return of 15.8% and payback periods of 7 years.

Tyson's recent move into the renewable energy sector is admirable, and would benefit by expanding beyond processing fatty residues of slaughterhouses into liquid fuels. This fat represents the small fraction of waste streams generated in poultry production. Tyson would receive a variety of benefits from deploying gasification units on large poultry farms to process litter: Economically, Tyson would receive income from electricity generated (leveraging Arkansas's net metering laws), reduced fuel costs for winter heating, carbon credits, as well as tax credits. Environmentally, this would help meet Tyson's goals to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and maintain water quality near farms, while proactively addressing future regulations. Finally, this project would generate positive publicity, demonstrating Tyson's commitment to environmental stewardship, sustainability, and public welfare. Public benefits from this project include improved water quality, decreased odors, and a stronger regional economy (as fewer dollars are spent on fuel produced out-of-state).

These conservative cost estimates are detailed in the attached supplemental document. In summary, I urge you to consider adding gasification to your renewable energy portfolio. My motivations for writing this letter are purely based on personal beliefs; I hold no financial interest in any company producing biomass gasification products.

Sincerely,
Josiah Johnston
Ph.D. Student
Energy and Resources Group
University of California, Berkeley
310 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-3050

Economic Estimates

Factors that would lower cost estimates:

• Combined heat and power: harnessing exhaust to heat poultry houses in the winter would lower fuel costs, and increase avoided greenhouse gas emissions.
• Rising costs of electricity: the payback period and internal rate of return are low estimates because they assume a constant price of electricity over the next 10 years, and electricity prices are likely to rise. IRR is also low because it does not consider revenues once capital costs are paid off.
• Tax credits for renewable energy production.
• Bulk purchasing: Community Power Corporation may offer capital discounts for bulk purchases.
• Increasing plant capacity from 100 kW to 1 MW would reduce both capital and operational costs by 25%. However, the poultry litter from a single large farm would no longer be sufficient to meet fuel needs. A 1 MW facility would need to gather fuel from several farms, possibly including cellulosic crop residues or sawmill scraps.

Deployment potential

There are 108 turkey farms in Arkansas that on average raise 183,000 turkeys per year4. Assuming 1,000 turkeys produce 12.3 short tons of litter1, these farms on average produce 2,250 short tons of litter annually.

There are 224 chicken farms in Arkansas that on average raise 1.08 million chickens per year4. Assuming 1,000 chickens produce 1.2 short tons of litter1, these farms on average produce 1,300 short tons of litter annually. The average chicken farm would need to supplement litter with 1 ton of crop residue or straw, which could be obtained at negligible cost.

Emissions

The Biomax Modular Power System has passed California air emissions standards with wood chip feedstock6. A 2001 report7 indicates the engine would need to be retuned and a catalytic converter added to achieve acceptable levels with a poultry-litter feedstock.

Vendor Information

Community Power Corporation of Littleton, CO produces a 100 kW gasification unit capable of processing poultry litter that is sold under the product line Biomax Modular Power System. The capital costs of a 100 kW unit capable of annually processing 1,400 short tons are $2000/kW, and operations and maintenance costs are $200/kW/year.

Community Power Corporation
http://www.gocpc.com/
Art Lilley artsolar@aol.com
Robb Walt rwalt@gocpc.com
Telephone: (303) 933-3135
FAX: (303) 933-1497
8110 Shaffer Parkway, Suite 120
Littleton, CO 80127

The spreadsheets that derived these estimates are available at http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~siah/MiniProjects/PoultryLitterGasification.xls

References and data sources

1. Flora, J.R.V., Riahi-Nezhad, C. "Availability Of Poultry Manure As A Potential Bio-Fuel Feedstock For Energy Production". Submitted to South Carolina Energy Office on August 31, 2006. Available online.
2. Equipment lifetime drawn from a report made by the equipment manufacturer to the Department of Energy. Available online.
3. Cost of commercial electricity in Arkansas obtained from the Energy Information Administration. Available online.
4. USDA, 2002 Census of Agriculture, Volume 1 Chapter 1: Arkansas State Level Data. Available online.
5. Arkansas greenhouse gas data obtained from CARMA. Available online.
6. Community Power Corporation internal document. Available online.
7. Reardon, J.P., Lilley, A., Browne, K., Beard, K., Wimberly, J., and Avens, J., "Demonstration of a Small Modular Biopower System Using Poultry Litter," Final Report submitted to the Department of Energy, 2001. Available online.