After reading and writing about all these waste to energy technologies it is nice to come by some local news that discusses the possibility of those technologies being implemented. I recently came across a newspaper article from the Greeley Tribune that discussed the energy economy and future for Weld county. Weld county is mostly known for its vast amounts of oil and gas that is produced from the Niobrara formation. In fact, the article states that 37 percent of all the oil and gas wells in Colorado are located in Weld County. Fortunately, Weld county is also a agricultural hot spot, just like most of Northeast Colorado. And what comes with many agricultural establishments, lots of agricultural wastes. So what better way to harvest more energy in this already energy rich county than by building a anaerobic digestion facility.
Heartland Renewable Energy, based out of Longmont, CO has plans to build a anaerobic digestion facility near the town of Gilcrest, CO. They plan to process the biogas produced from manure in the area, into pipeline ready gas. The plant will include 24 anaerobic digesters and will be built near the Colorado Interstate Gas Pipeline allowing for easy injection into the pipeline. It is estimated that this plant will be able to power 22,000 homes in the surrounding areas.
Also, JBS Five Rivers and Harsh International Inc. of Eaton, CO plan to implement a manure gasifier that will burn the feedlot wastes to produce a very hot gas stream used to make steam energy. The gasifier will be installed at Kuner Feedlot in Kersey, CO and can be expected to reduce the feedlots natural gas consumption by 80 percent.
Great things are happening in waste to energy here in Colorado, and I plan to keep everyone posted on the progress of these projects as well as look for already implemented technologies in the area and new ones that come about.
Great post--newsy, local, interesting. I hope you're thinking about how to interact with others who might be writing/blogging about these themes so that you can connect with them here. What you're doing matters! Nice work.
ReplyDeleteThat is great news. It's good to hear that Colorado is interested in these new technologies and that they are actually being built. I watched the governor's state of the state address and one of his points was on energy, so the future looks bright for Colorado (no pun intended).
ReplyDelete