04/25/08 Digesting Clean Energy

Digesting Clean Energy. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. The renewable fuels industry is a multi-faceted industry working on many ways to help replace the demand for fossil fuels. Many projects have been up and running for years while a few are just starting out. Clean natural gas from biomethane digesters is a great way of producing a fuel source and disposing of animal waste materials. Winston Inouye with Vector Management says that his client Intrepid Technology and Resources has reached a milestone in the biomethane arena. INOUYE: Their primary focus is biomethane, converting animal waste, i.e. manure primarily into a clean, renewable energy product. In this case it's pipeline quality natural gas. They are the first company to have their pipeline quality gas certified by the gas technical institute here in the United States and they are very proud of that fact. Intrepid has also passed the even more stringent and restrictive DOT gas transport standards. No one else has been able to clear that bar, making them the only biomethane producers in the country who can haul their product over the open road and deliver direct to customers. Inouye talks about the process. INOUYE: Theirs is a tank process. It's a very scalable process that lends itself to dairy operations; swine, poultry operations. Right now their primary focus is dairy operations here in southern Idaho. Specifically it's a stand up tank digester process as opposed to the pits type of process that maybe many people are familiar with. Once this manure is turned into gas, they see their focus as being in the business of cleaning up the biomethane into pipeline quality gas. According to Innouye, it's not so much about the actual process. INOUYE: What they're doing different is a matter of procedure. Intrepid Technology and Resources has been working with Intermountain Gas which in return has been helping them get their gas to the quality assurance standard that really is above all others. To do that, they have been working with Gas Technical Institute. They gave their seal of certification, I believe it was right around the first of the year so this sets a precedent for biomethane and it sets a precedent that other gas companies in the biomethane industry will strive for. Let's put the practicality of biomethane in to some simple terms. INOUYE: How many cows could run one house per year? About 5 cows running their back end material through a digester can run the average house per year, that is the average house's gas needs in the Unites States For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org