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COW PIE POWER: Southern N.M. plant to convert dairy-farm waste into biogasAug 02, 2009 (Albuquerque Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Fifty-thousand dairy cows in southern New Mexico figure into PNM's plans to meet the state's renewable energy requirements. The utility plans to add biogas to its portfolio by purchasing methane gas derived from manure and send it by pipeline to natural gas-fired power plants, starting with the Luna generating plant near Deming. "I find it really exciting," said Cynthia Bothwell, manager of PNM's Integrated Resource Planning Department. site. "That's basically what the natural gas is we use in our plants -- methane gas that is trapped underground. This one is above ground," Bothwell said. "It actually resolves some environmental problems the livestock industry has been having as well." R-Qubed president Eddie Rodriguez, an attorney and former chief operating officer with the El Paso Electric Co., said the firm is getting funding squared away, which will be a combination of private investment and financing. The first of the plant's four "quadrants" should be under construction by early next year and operational within 12 months. When fully built, it will employ 50 to 60 people. Fertilizer and compost Anaerobic digestion technology is a relatively new concept in the United States, Rodriguez said. "But is not a new concept in Europe and in other parts of the world," he said. One of the companies working with R-Qubed, Austria-based Entec Biogas GmbH, has more than 30 years' experience in the digester business, building commercial applications in such places as Germany, Spain and Belgium, according to Rodriguez. Reynolds Inc. of Indiana is R-Qubed's other partner, providing the engineering know-how to build the waste-treatment and pipeline systems for the plant. "I think effectively all the methane we produce PNM will take," Rodriguez said. Any of PNM's natural gas plants could use the methane, Bothwell said, but Luna is the closest to the R-Qubed site and the one that's operated the most. None of the plants would require modification. "Instead of buying renewable energy, we're buying a renewable fuel and using that in our existing power plants to generate electricity." PNM estimates the biogas production would generate the equivalent of 7,000 megawatt-hour renewable energy credits in 2010, growing to 62,000 megawatt-hours in 2012. That could power 1,060 and 9,400 households, respectively. Like most renewables, methane gas is more expensive than traditional sources and PNM would pay a premium for the gas, subject to approval by the state Public Regulation Commission. According to testimony submitted to the PRC, that premium for the cost above natural gas is estimated at $205,000 in 2011. The utility is allowed to recover that cost from ratepayers. "We don't need the commission's approval just to buy the gas; we need it for the renewable premium we're paying for that gas," Bothwell said. "As soon the facility is complete, we will purchase the gas." Digestion start-up The methane gas would come from R-Qubed Energy Inc. of El Paso, a start-up company that plans to build a $72 million soilenhancing liquid fertilizer and compost plant amid the dozen or so dairy farms strung along Interstate 25 between Las Cruces and El Paso. Pipeline quality methane gas would be produced at the 60-acre site through a complex process in which bacteria break down organic materials in the absence of oxygen and produce "biogas" as a waste product. PNM would deliver the methane to its Luna plant about 65 miles away via an existing natural gas pipeline adjacent to the R-Qubed To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.abqjournal.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |