Home Farms is Proceeding with Project in Area

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Other News Stories from the March 2007 Issue:

Brookdale Will Offer Program for Utility Workers

Natural Gas Drilling Planned in Mall Parking Lot

PG&E Part of Climate Change Solution

PUC Bans Energy Buys from Heavy Polluters

Security Breach at an LNG Facility

GE, AES Target Greenhouse Gas

Girl’s Persistence Recognized

Advisory for Dominion Contractors

Anaerobic Digesters May Be Used to Produce Natural Gas

Geothermal Heat Mining Promises Abundant, Cheap Energy

FERC Seeks Comment on Standards of Conduct Regulations

AOGCC to Review Gas Flaring Regs

Gas Industry News (March 2007)

Text Box: MONTEVIDEO — Municipal solid waste, most of it collected in the Twin Cities, will become the fuel to power operations at the Central Bi-Products plant near Redwood Falls. That is, if the necessary state environmental permits can be obtained. Home Farms Technologies of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, is now moving forward with the permitting phase of its first-of-a-kind project, representatives of the company said during a meeting Friday with representatives of Clean Up our River Environment in Montevideo. Kenneth Birch, president of the company, said its U.S. subsidiary will build Minnesota’s first commercial plant to use gasification technology to convert municipal solid waste into energy. Now estimated as a $58 million investment for the company, Home Farms Technologies’ U.S. subsidiary will build two gasifiers with thermal oxidizers. They will use a high-temperature, oxygen-starved process to convert municipal solid waste into a clean burning synthetic gas. The gas will burn cleaner than natural gas, according to Andrew Butler, vice president of engineering for Home Farms Technologies. Tests conducted on a gasifier in Romoland, Calif., using municipal solid waste produced emissions well below federal and state standards, according to information the company provided. The synthetic gas produced by the gasifier will replace the use of natural gas at Central Bi-Products, which is a rendering facility that also produces biodiesel fuel. The Home Farms facility will use the synthetic gas to produce the 125,000 pounds of steam per hour needed for the Central Bi-Products operations. There is also the possibility that the gasification energy could be tapped to produce 3 to 5 megawatts of electricity to be sold to the local grid, according to Birch. The gasifiers will require a source of 600 to 650 tons of municipal solid waste each day. Company officials have reached contracts with independent refuse collectors in the metropolitan area to supply 500 to 550 tons of the material per day. They intend to collect the remainder from the counties surrounding the plant.