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DNR promotes digesters to convert livestock, processing waste into products
(Gazette, The (Cedar Rapids, IA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 17--WASHINGTON, Iowa -- Community digesters may be the next advancement in manure handling in Iowa.
Manure and waste from packing plants and food processors would go in, and methane gas and fertilizer would come out. The methane could replace natural gas that is imported by Iowa, including gas used in ethanol or soydiesel production.
ECO Technology Solutions LLC, a Virginia company with experience in operating digesters, is working with the energy office of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to propose the idea of digesters in counties with high livestock production. On Tuesday, they were in Washington County, one of Iowa's larger pork producing areas.
"This has been going on in Europe for a long time," said Jim Bodensteiner with the Energy and Waste Management Bureau of the DNR. "It provides a means for livestock and food processors to be more sustainable.
"We're selling this as an economic opportunity much like an ethanol plant. It reduces tipping fees for processors at landfills."
Denmark uses more than 40 digesters, with half of them used as community digesters by several neighboring farmers. Denmark uses heat from digesters to warm village houses, the methane generates electricity, and the fertilizer replenishes farm fields.
The fertilizer from a digester is returned to farms in a nitrogen-rich liquid, with 90 percent of the odor removed, and a phosphorous-rich solid.
Some of Iowa's livestock producers already use digesters, in the form of uncovered lagoons, which allow methane to escape into the air.
"Methane is 20 times worse than carbon dioxide," Bodensteiner said.
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