Talking Turkey
Tip of the hat to my dad for the story of tiny Benson, Minnesota - turkey production capital of the Upper Midwest - which has put turkey waste to work. A power plant, built by Fibrominn, a part of Fibrowatt LLC, uses 700,000 tons of turkey litter - a combination of droppings and bedding material such as wood chips - to produce 55MW of electricity.
Minnesota raises 45 million turkeys each year, with 2 million tons of turkey litter produced. The electricity produced at the Benson plant is enough to power 50,000 homes. For reference, Swift County, where Benson is located, has a population of 11,956, in 4,821 housing units.
Is burning that biomass a good thing, or does it contribute pollution and greenhouse gases to the atmosphere? Burning the waste material does not produce any more pollution than simply letting it decompose, and the ash that is leftover after the material is burned is a 0-17-13 fertilizer with micronutrients such as sulfur and zinc. North American Pres. Randy Tersteec says that 400 pounds of the ash will provide the same amount of nutrients as four tons of the regular poultry litter.
Comments (6)
Turkeys to the rescue!
And their good with gravy, mashed potatoes and cranberry.
Really though, using the "byproducts" seems like a good idea.
Posted by Darren | May 1, 2007 1:59 PM
Amazing! That's the kind of thing we need more of. Good idea all around. A heck of a lot less pollution with this method.
Posted by Chris | May 1, 2007 7:06 PM
Ahhh, one of the perfect "alternative" fuel solutions. Great for the individual small scale situation it is in and totally useless for industrial level production of energy. Just like all the rest of the "alternatives".
Posted by Kamatu | May 3, 2007 6:47 AM
No, Kamatu, it's only useless for people who are only interested in protecting the status quo -- namely, yourself.
Posted by Mark | May 3, 2007 2:28 PM
Excellent comeback Mark. So, pray tell how you would expand the turkey poop plan into full scale production nationwide. Methods of transporting the fuel (i.e. - turkey poop) from poop production facility (PPF) to power producing generator (PPG) need to be outlined. Then you need to cover the manhour costs of collection and prep at the PPF as well as the manhours needed to utilize the fuel at the PPG. You can keep developing it from there, insuring you not only cover the costs of actual production, manpower and physical plant, but comparing it with the costs of "traditional" power generation.
How to tell you aren't serious, you won't use the nuclear option out of some unquantified fear.
Posted by Kamatu | May 7, 2007 8:44 AM
I'm in favor of nuclear. Try again.
Posted by Mark | May 7, 2007 1:55 PM