Source: MEATINGPLACE, 12/16/11


Perdue AgriBusiness Inc. announced it has partnered with Fibrowatt LLC to submit a proposal to the state of Maryland to build a 10-megawatt power plant fueled by poultry litter.

The combined heat and power biomass boiler operation would provide 10 megawatts of electricity to the state and up to 70,000 pounds per hour of steam to the Perdue AgriBusiness complex, the company said. The fuel source will be a combination of poultry litter, layer hen manure, wood chips and other locally sourced biomass.

The plan was submitted in response to a request for proposals from the state under its Clean Bay Power program.  Perdue said the project, by converting power and steam production from a fossil fuel to a renewable fuel, would reduce green house gas emissions by an estimated 165,000 tons of CO2 annually.
The facility would be located at the Perdue AgriBusiness Zion Church Road complex near Salisbury, Md.
Perdue AgriBusiness currently uses fossil fuel to generate steam, which provides heat during various steps of soybean processing and poultry feed manufacturing, the company said. For the past two years, Perdue said, it has reviewed available technologies to convert poultry litter to energy.

"Our conclusion at this point is that the only commercially viable technology is combustion. The other technologies, while promising to varying degrees, represent a significant risk of project failure compared to combustion," Perdue AgriBusiness President Dick Willey said in a statement.

Perdue AgriBusiness currently has two biomass boiler operations in North Carolina that provide steam and electricity using wood, peanut hulls and cotton gin waste.

Fibrowatt has constructed poultry-litter-fueled power plants in the United Kingdom as well as the Fibrominn Biomass Power Plant in Benson, Minn., which opened in 2007. The 55-megawatt Benson plant combusts more than 700,000 tons of litter and biomass annually.

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