Holsteins Deliver Horsepower

June 21, 2006

By Michelle L. Quinn / Post-Tribune correspondent

The cows at Fair Oaks Dairy may soon play a part in reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, helping to fuel vehicles across the country within two years.

The dairy giant, one of the largest dairy operations east of the Mississippi River, announced Tuesday it has entered into a partnership with Old Bethpage, N.Y.-based Bion Environmental Technologies Inc. to build an ethanol plant run solely by waste — both from the cow and the corn it eats. Aside from being all-natural, the process would create the ethanol at 25 percent less than the cost of what a normal, centrifuge-using ethanol plant could while eliminating 20 percent of the operating costs, said David Mager, Bion’s vice president of public policy.

The plant would also be the first in the nation to employ the process, Mager said.

Mager did not release details of costs of creating the plant, which will be privately funded and essentially depend on how many farms decide to take part in the shared venture. In the nearby town of Reynolds, population 553, the government is funding a similar project, expected to power the entire area on renewable waste.

The process centers on the waste left behind when producing ethanol — called distillers grain, it must be dried through a centrifuge before it can be disposed of properly, Mager said. The centrifuge is the most expensive part of an ethanol plant, both in terms of building it as well as powering it.

Distillers grain, however, makes a good nutritious meal for cows, so if you feed it to them, you eliminate the need for a centrifuge, he said.

The second part of the process involves one that is currently implemented at Fair Oaks Dairy — the anaerobic digester, which takes manure and separates from it methane and hemicellulosic material, or the ingredient that makes the manure fragrant. The methane and other pollutants will then be used to power the ethanol plant.

“There’s no coal or any other outside fuel sources needed, which reduces operating costs by 20 percent and capital costs by 25 percent,” Mager said. “For a commodity business, that’s a big deal.”

Furthermore, the technology improves the net energy balance ratio in the production of ethanol from corn to 2.5 out to 1 part in, up from 1.4-to-1, he said.

Ethanol production at Fair Oaks will be a closed-loop system that the company’s research indicates will create sufficient renewable energy to support 1 million gallons of ethanol for every 1,000 dairy cows.

Just how big the operation will be, however, remains to be seen, said Mike McCloskey, owner of Fair Oaks Dairy and a consultant with Bion.

“Right now, we’re entering into Stage 1 of the deal, which will determine the size of the plant and how many cows to be used, as well as whether we’ll use cows from outside sources,” McCloskey said. “What we do know is that the plant will be on-site with the dairy.”

Using other outside sources, such as distillers grain from other ethanol plants, isn’t part of the plan, but that won’t have any effect on other ethanol plants, such as Iroquois in Rensselaer, said Michael Aylesworth, northern district director for Indiana Department of Environmental Management out of South Bend and former member of Iroquois’ board of directors.

“The new venture won’t affect the market whatsoever,” Aylesworth said. “As I’ve said recently, ethanol is going to be needed worldwide as a fuel extender, so (Fair Oaks) will be another welcome factor. Now, from IDEM’s standpoint, this ethanol plant is much needed, since it’ll answer quite a lot of problems with manure management.”

Over the weekend, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., focused much of a talk they gave on alternative fuel, said Lugar’s press secretary, Andy Fisher. News of the new plant thrilled the senator.

“It’s an important development and very good news as Indiana rapidly grows its production of ethanol,” Lugar said.

Post-Tribune staff writer Danielle Braff contributed to this report.