Green dream: creating energy from waste

Ethanol Plants Looking to Methane For Their Fuel

The Plain Dealer
March 09, 2007
By Nate Jenkins
Associated Press

Mead, Neb.- Ranchers have long been fond of saying cattle manure smells like money.

Now, people in the business of making ethanol are smelling dollars, too - in the methane gas emitted by manure at large cattle feedlots and dairies.

Across the country, ethanol plants powered by methane instead of costly natural gas or coal are on the drawing board - a movement that could be a win-win situation for the environment and the industry.

"We`ll produce ethanol much more efficiently and do it in an environmentally friendly way," said Dennis Langley, chief executive of Kansas-based E3 BioFuels.

Burning the methane will cut the amount of the greenhouse gas - which contributes to global warming - released into the environment.

In addition to providing a cheap energy alternative, using methane addresses a longtime criticism that making ethanol uses too much natural gas or coal to produce.

Supporters of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels contend they burn cleaner than fossil fuels, reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and give farmers another market to sell their produce.

The first plant using a so-called methanol closed-loop system is set to begin operating soon in Mead, Neb.

Under the closed-loop system at the Mead plant, manure will fall through metal slats in the cattle pens and be collected. Methane from the manure will be trapped instead of being allowed to drift into the atmosphere, and it then will be used to generate power for the plant. Corn and grain will be used to produce ethanol, and cattle will eat the wet distiller`s grain that is a byproduct of ethanol production, closing the loop.

Langley`s plant is next to a 28,000-head cattle feedlot. The cattle will produce roughly 244,000 tons of manure annually - more than enough to be the sole power source for the company`s 25 million-gallon ethanol plant.

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