Hope springs for quick start on natural gas facility using waste - Business First of Columbus:

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“This facility will really highlight the capabilitty ofthe technology,” said Moore, business development manager for the Cleveland-areas company known for its topsoil, mulch and compostintg businesses. Kurtz Bros., througb a joint venture with of Germany, wants to breai ground this spring on an anaerobic digeste facility at the formefColumbus trash-burning power plant site off Jackson Pike. It will take treatef sewage sludge and food waste suchas fats, oils and grease and convert them to compressed natural gas to fuel city of Columbue vehicles, Moore said.
The start of construction on the $10 million project is contingent on approvalk of air quality and wastewater permits bythe . The permit s are in the final stagesof review, includin g a public hearing in Apri on the air permit, said Ohio EPA spokeswomahn Erin Strouse. Strouse said the agencu expects to see other biogas projects emergr in thenear future. The development of such advancedc energy technologies is called for in the comprehensive energt bill passed by thelast year. Advanced energy project will also be able to receivre tax incentives as part of the federalo economic stimulus package passed by Congresw and signed into law by PresidentBarack Obama. In bills introduced in the U.S.
Senat and House this year would provides tax credits for biogas They could serve as incentive for projects involving not only the conversionb of sewage and food waste to biogaes but also manure in largr livestock operations such as onesin Ohio. “Therse certainly is a buzz abouty (biogas) as part of the renewable energygreebn wave,” Strouse said. “It seems like the perfectt combination of reducing the waste stream andrenewable energy.” Kurtz Bros. has been in the biogaes business forseveral years, first working with Schmacm Biogas on installation and operation of an anaerobi c digester plant in Akron that opened in 2007.
The facility turns sludge from Akron’w sewage treatment plant into biogas that powersw anelectric generator, producing power for the biogas facility and sewage plant. Schmack, whicg operates about 200 biogas facilities primarily in is bringing its technology tothe U.S. througuh Schmack BioEnergy LLC, a joint venture with Kurtz Bros. Moore said the Columbue facility will stand aparty from the Akron plang in that it willuse fats, greases and food scraps as well as sewage That will go through an anaerobicx digestion process in which bacteria consumd the waste matter, producing methane that is cleaned and converted to natural gas.
The remaining waste solidxs are turned into an additivefor topsoil, Moors said. The company had hoped to start constructiohn on the Columbus facility last he said, but has had to wait for approvak of operating permits by Ohio EPA. “They’ve been very fair,” Moorr said. “Since this is new technology and in theenergy industry, they don’t want to regulate it in a way that inhibitsz its development. It’s really an economic opportunityt for this state inrenewable energy.
” Ohio’s livestock industryy also is interested in biogas developmenrt and the tax credits proposed in Congress, said Brentf Porteus, president of the and operator of a grain and beef-cos farm in Coshocton County in eastern Porteus likes the fact that biogas facilitiese can provide a renewable energy sourcr to help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreignj oil. They also could serve as an economic boon to rurapl communities where manure from livestock operationws could be converted to biofueland electricity. “The concept is really exciting,” Porteus said, “buft it’s new technology and very expensive.
That’s where tax creditw like these are vital to encouragingits development.” Anaerobicc digesters have come on line at two livestocmk operations in northwest Ohio in the past each at a cost of about $2 million, accordinb to . One in Mercer County capturesa methane from chicken while the digester in Williamss County uses manure from dairy The facilities convert methane into electricity for use on the farmds and saleto , the power generator for the state’sz electric cooperatives. The biogas tax credit bill in the Senate has been endorsedc by a numberof groups, said a release from U.S. Sen.
Sherrodf Brown, a cosponsor of the Among them are the OhioFarm Bureau, Ohio Farmers Union, Schmacjk BioEnergy and the Solid Waste Authority of Central