Cleaner Manure Burns Hotter In Ethanol Processing

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608,skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Brent Auvermann, 806-677-5600,bauverma@ag.tamu.edu

HEREFORD – Clean manure may sound like an oxymoron, but Dr. Brent Auvermann is working with feedyard owners to help them get the most "spark" from it as a fuel source.

Auvermann, a Texas Cooperative Extension engineering specialist, hosted "Producing High-Value Manure for BioFuels and Fertilizer" recently in Hereford. The meeting outlined work by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers to determine best management practices for scraping manure from the feed pens.

"We're doing something that has never been done before," said Arles "Bugs" Graham, Panda Energy International's general manager for the Hereford plant. Graham spoke at the meeting.

"We're using your manure as an energy source," he said. "It's a very complex process."

After starting up the plant with natural gas as the boiler fuel, Panda Energy will eventually use manure as a fuel source when producing ethanol for an E10 fuel blend, Graham said.

The plant will initially process corn for ethanol, although the company is looking at alternative sources of starch to make the ethanol, and it will produce distiller's grains as a by-product.

"But manure is our future," Graham said, estimating each plant will use 1,500 tons a day.

http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/FUEL/May2307a.htm