Regional-Scale Poultry Litter to Energy: Overview of the Fibrominn 50-MW Biomass Power Plant

摘要

Poultry litter is normally managed by means of land application within the same area as the litter is generated. In regions of concentrated poultry production, the generation and subsequent management of litter have become an increasing challenge. Concerns over increased soil nutrient levels, impaired water quality, and community impacts have resulted in increased regulatory and legal burdens for the poultry industry. Accordingly, in major poultry producing regions, there is growing pressure to find reliable, affordable, and sustainable alternatives to land application for the management of litter. Using poultry litter as a biomass fuel to produce energy is a particularly attractive alternative for several reasons. Poultry-litter-fueled power plants can reliably process very large quantities of litter on a continuous, year-round basis, thereby, benefiting an entire poultry-growing region economically and environmentally. In addition, the ash resulting from the use of litter as a fuel is a valuable fertilizer product. The ash retains much of the nutrient value of the litter in a concentrated form, allowing for the storage and economical transport of this material away from the concentrated poultry production areas. Of added importance, poultry litter power is an environmentally sustainable ("carbon-neutral") approach to energy generation, which displaces generation by fossil fuel power plants. While poultry litter to energy facilities have operated commercially with success in the United Kingdom for 13 years, only now is a large facility in the mature stages of development in the United States. This paper provides an overview of the Fibrominn Biomass Power Plant, which is a 50 MW poultry-litter fueled power plant under construction in Minnesota. The Fibrominn project, located in the west-central community of Benson, will serve a major turkey producing region, and is being developed by Fibrowatt LLC. The Fibrominn plant will be fueled with approximately 700,000 tons per year of biomass, primarily turkey litter, in conjunction with smaller quantities of other agricultural biomass fuel. The Fibrominn project is currently permitted, financed (USD202 million), and is under construction, and is scheduled for commercial operation in mid-2007. After discussing the impetus for poultry litter power in the U.S., key aspects of the Fibrominn project are addressed, including: the need for an alternative to land application for management of poultry litter, the process by which support for the Fibrominn project was garnered, arrangements made with litter generators to supply fuel to the project, how the project coordinates litter management and transport with the region’s producers, the technical characteristics of the turkey litter as a fuel, an overview of key design parameters for the power plant, Best Available Control Technology for the power plant emissions, the environmental greenhouse-gas advantage afforded by the plant, attributes of the ash residue as a valuable fertilizer product and the marketing plan for the ash, the economics of the project, and of particular importance, the factors that have made the Fibrominn project successful.