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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 2019)
B7 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019 Money from manure By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press B OARDMAN — A thousand miles sep- arates Threemile Canyon Farms in Eastern Oregon, surrounded by high desert and sagebrush, from the crowded freeways of Los Angeles. Though they might seem like distant strangers, the mega-dairy and the mega- lopolis are about to be con- nected by a most unexpected resource — cow manure. Threemile Canyon Farms is Oregon’s largest dairy with 68,340 cattle, includ- ing 33,000 milking cows. In 2012, the farm built an anaerobic digester to cap- ture methane emissions from all that manure. It has since used the gas to gen- erate electricity, which it sells to the interstate utility Pacifi Corp. In June, state regulators approved an expansion of the facility, and Threemile Canyon installed new equip- ment to purify the methane. Farm managers now plan to inject it into a nearby natu- ral gas pipeline, which will transport it to Southern Cal- ifornia to produce clean- er-burning fuel for trucks. “Renewable natural gas is gaining a lot of momen- tum in the marketplace,” said Marty Myers, general manager of Threemile Can- yon Farms. “It’s a highly valuable renewable fuel.” Myers and others described the system as a best management practice for dairies to reduce air pol- lution that contributes to cli- mate change and provides a new revenue stream in the face of low milk prices. But environmental opponents argue renewable natural gas is an inherently dirty energy source supporting unsustain- able large farms. ‘This is modern farming’ The digester complex at Threemile Canyon over- looks rows of free-stall barns where cows wait to be milked at the 93,000-acre farm west of Boardman. Rick Morck, a con- sultant and engineer who helped design the digester, stood in the control room where workers monitor the production of biogas 24/7. Every step of the process is automated. “This whole operation, nothing passes through that isn’t used, reused or opti- mized,” Morck said. It starts with fl ushing manure from the barns, which is done four times a day. The sludge collects in a large concrete lagoon, and is then pumped through a series of rotating screens to remove most solids. From there, it goes into settling tanks known as clarifi ers, and fi nally to 30-foot-deep stilling basins where anaer- obic digestion occurs. The basins look like two large half-infl ated air mat- tresses, capable of holding a combined 15 million gallons of manure. A thick vinyl cover traps the harmful gas emissions. During the digestion pro- cess, bacteria and micro- organisms break down the manure at 100 degrees over 23 days, giving off mostly methane and carbon diox- ide. It is currently used to fi re three generators capa- ble of producing up to 4.8 megawatts of electricity — enough power for a city the size of nearby Boardman, population 3,329. The remaining dried sol- ids are also recycled to make animal bedding, which has the texture and feel of sawdust. It can also be used as a nutrient-rich soil amendment. Leftover liquid is reused as clean water to fl ush out the barns, starting the pro- cess anew. “It’s really amazing,” Morck said. “This is modern farming.” Tapping into the pipeline Earlier this year, Photos by George Plaven/Capital Press The remaining dry solids from manure digestion are similar in feel to sawdust, and can be used for animal bedding or as a soil amendment. Threemile Canyon Farms asked the Oregon Depart- ment of Environmen- tal Quality for permission to expand and retrofi t the digester complex with new technology. DEQ approved a mod- ifi ed air quality permit for the facility in July, despite objections from 10 environ- mental groups. A third stilling basin is now under construction at the farm, which would add the capacity for another 6 million gallons of manure. With the two other basins, it will be able to handle all manure from the farm’s entire milking herd. More importantly, Myers said, the farm is already fi n- ished installing new equip- ment to convert the methane to “pipeline quality” natural gas, removing carbon diox- ide and other impurities. Threemile Canyon part- nered with Equilibrium Capital, a Portland invest- ment fi rm, on the $30 mil- lion project. Iogen Corp., a Canadian biotech fi rm, has marketed the gas to compa- nies that plan to make trans- portation fuel. Renewable natural gas, or RNG, reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 80% or more compared to diesel, according to the Coalition for Renewable Gas. RNG also qualifi es for tax credits under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, further incen- tivizing production. Myers said the farm began injecting natural gas into an interstate pipeline in late July. The line was extended through Threemile Canyon in 2016 to service the Carty Generating Sta- tion, a 440-megawatt natu- ral gas power plant south of Boardman owned by Port- land General Electric. “When we gave them the easement to do that, part of the negotiation was we would be able to tap into that pipeline,” Myers said. The Environmental Protec- tion Agency generally rec- ommends farms have at least 500 cattle or 2,000 hogs for them to be feasi- ble. Construction costs are about $2,000 per animal, Frear said, which quickly adds up to millions of dol- lars, depending on size. The industry looked toward a new model. Due to its smaller carbon foot- print, RNG qualifi es as an advanced biofuel under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, a federal program that requires transportation fuel to contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels to help curb greenhouse gas emissions. Under the program, RNG is eligible for biofuel credits that companies can market and sell. Individual states, such as Oregon and Califor- nia, also offer credits through their Low Carbon Fuel Stan- dard programs, adding to the potential value. Manure from hogs and cattle can be particularly high-value, Frear said, because of its lower carbon index score. On-farm digest- ers are actually carbon-neg- ative, meaning they divert carbon that would otherwise go into the atmosphere. Frear said dairy gas can fetch the equivalent of up to 20 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity — four times more than the 5 cents earned by electric-to-grid. Potential for growth Patrick Serfass, execu- tive director of the American Biogas Council, said there is massive potential for indus- try growth. There are 2,200 biogas systems in operation across the country, including 250 farm-based digesters, 1,300 systems at wastewater treat- ment plants, 80 stand-alone food scrap digesters and 600 at landfi lls, Serfass said. The American Biogas Council, EPA and USDA predict there is enough capacity to add 14,000 bio- gas projects. That includes 8,000 farm digesters. “We have so much organic material to deal with,” Serfass said, point- ing to 31 billion gallons of wastewater every day and manure from 8 billion cows, chickens, turkeys and hogs. “None of those numbers are going down,” he said. “We have to develop the infrastructure to handle all that material.” Historically, digesters were installed primarily to reduce odor, Serfass said, but the benefi ts they provide are multi-faceted. Digesters kill 99% of the pathogens in manure and wastewater while captur- ing methane, a potent green- house gas. Not only can the gas be recycled as renew- able fuel, but the digested fi ber is useful as animal bed- ding and fertilizer, he said. He pointed to Magic Dirt, a company in Idaho that Marty Myers, general manager of Threemile Canyon Farms, and Rick Morck, who helped design and engineer the dairy’s manure digester, look at new equipment that converts the gas to ‘pipeline quality.’ It will be sold to customers in Southern California to make transportation fuel. makes organic potting soil from digested fi ber. Accord- ing to the company, 10 cubic feet of Magic Dirt seques- ters approximately a third- ton of greenhouse gas, and the product is capable of holding three times its dry weight in moisture. “We’re trying to do a lot of education to help farm- ers and all of these sectors to understand the many ben- efi ts that come from a bio- gas system,” Serfass said. “It becomes very obvious about how benefi cial these systems are.” ASSISTANCE LEAGUE® THE COLUMBIA PACIFIC Presents the 12 th Annual GEARHART - OCEAN VIEWS TICKETS $30 DAY OF $35 SATURDAY • OCTOBER 12 TH • 2019 11 AM -3 PM Tickets Available at: HOLLY McHONE JEWELERS • ASTORIA/THE SWEET SHOP • GEARHART OR ONLINE AT WWW.ASSISTANCELEAGUECP.ORG HOMES ON TOUR Goodman/Garvey Hoffman/Trullinger Cowles Marino Warren Natural Nook SPONSORS AUTIO Co./England Marine RESTAURANT Thai Me Up FLORIST Erickson’s Miller/Keizer Lum’s TOTEM Properties Maggie’s on the Prom Bloomin Crazy The Sweet Shop Pacific Way Cafe Erickson’s Bloomin Crazy US Bank Bigby’s Tree Service Finn’s Fish House Dough Dough Bakery Natural Nook Natural Nook Proceeds benefit the 2019/20 “Operations School Bell” program that will provide clothing to over 700 Clatsop County Children. FOR MORE INFO GOTO WWW.ASSISTANCELEAGUECP.ORG OR CALL 503.791.2879 RNG market Renewable natural gas has become an increasingly attractive market over the last fi ve years, thanks a com- bination of incentives and lower electricity prices. Craig Frear, director of research and technology for Regenis — a company based in Ferndale, Wash., that spe- cializes in building and operating digesters on farms — said RNG has emerged as a better value proposition compared to electricity. “These developers are knocking on the doors of dairymen,” Frear said. Regenis built its fi rst manure digester in 2004 at Vander Haak Dairy in Lyn- don, Wash. Since then, the company has built and main- tained 13 digesters in Wash- ington, Oregon, Idaho and California. Frear said business hit a lull between 2012 and 2016, as drillers began extracting more natural gas by hydrau- lic fracking, which led to a drop in gas and electricity prices. Digester projects that once earned 8-10 cents per kilowatt-hour for the elec- tricity they produced were now lucky to get 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is near or below the cost of maintenance. “That was enough to strongly curtail the electric- to-grid business plan,” Frear said. Digesters can be costly. YOU WORK HARD ENOUGH. MAKE YOUR PLACE WORK HARDER FOR YOU. You’ve been chipping away at the to-do list and the place is looking great. But what about the things you can’t see—like energy being wasted? No worries. Energy Trust of Oregon has you covered with low-cost and DIY solutions to save energy and money. + Get more from your energy. Call us at 1.866.368.7878 or visit www.energytrust.org/DIY. Serving customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural, Cascade Natural Gas and Avista.