Manure for Fuel

Jeff Kroft's farm in northern Perry County is in picture perfect farming country. There are rolling hills of farms as far as the eye can see. As a third generation farmer, farming seems to be bred into Jeff Kroft. It's a lifestyle he lives and breathes - and loves. But he's beginning to think and plan for a new kind of farm. One that raises not just corn and cattle - but energy. He sees the waste from his herd of dairy cows as a new income stream.

Animal waste products such as manure have long provided biomass fuel for heating and cooking. American pioneers on the Great Plains burned buffalo chips to keep warm and in many parts of the developing world cow dung is still used as both a fertilizer and fuel. Manure can also be placed in tanks called anaerobic digesters, where it is broken down by bacteria and various chemical processes to produce biogas. While supplying its own energy needs, a farm could also solve its manure disposal problem, reduce odors, provide jobs, and increase the local tax base - all by installing a manure-to-energy generator. This is what Jeff Kroft is hoping to do on his farm.

"This project will have 5 sources of income" says Jeff Kroft. "Sale of electricity, carbon credits, green electric credits. Sale of cellulosic cellulose for livestock bedding and the sale of liquid fertilizer. And also the carbon credits for liquid fertilizer. I can see a lot of things that will change in the future. Everybody says I'd hate to be a young man growing up today - it's full of opportunity, clear full."

Jeff is one of a growing number of farmers who see a new type of farming in the 21st century. One that provides food and energy. "If I can put my manure into the digester I'll be able to produce about 500 to 600 dollars in sales of electricity (a month). But I can't do it with the number of animals that I have here today. It's going to consume (take) 500 milk cows, 1000 steers, 12,000 hogs. That's the community part of it, because they are in the area already. And 250 tons of chicken manure and a load of milk whey every day. Now why do I want a combination like that? Because that will make the by-product worth more money."

Dale Arnold, the Director of Energy for the Ohio Farm Bureau has looked at Kroft's plans and sees the possibilities." We have a large number of farmers taking a look at how to use manure to make fuel. Fuel meaning diesel fuel that can be used in a car a tractor, a standby motor. You can take that raw manure and put it through a process, under heat and pressure, and within a few hours you basically have a fuel. It's almost like for every pound of manure that can be used, you see about ¾ of a pound going out as fuel. And that other ¼ you see coming out as another complex chain of chemical compounds that are feed stocks for other products." In addition, new legislation passed in Ohio deregulating the electric utility industry includes a provision which allows individuals and companies which are not utilities to generate electricity for their own use and sell the excess to utilities or energy marketers.

The environmental benefits of processing manure into fuel include cleaner air and water. Some dairies get rid of manure by sluicing it off to lagoons, which produce methane that escapes into the air. Methane has a global warming effect that is 21 times that of carbon dioxide, so using the methane for energy production significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. And because manure that is used in the biogas plant is not washed off land surfaces by rain and irrigation into local rivers and streams, the local watershed also benefits.

"This is just the starting point." says Kroft. "We're like on a mountain and we aren't yet off the peak yet. So yeah, it's going to work. They're going to make it work because we don't have any choice. We use 30 million barrels of oil every day in this country along. Just for things like plastic resin, vinyl, carpet, tires. So even if we do have another fuel we're still going to have to have a massive amount of fuel for the rest of our lives."