04/15/05 Idaho digester, part two

The state's first methane digester has been up and running for a couple of months at the Whitesides Dairy north of Rupert. Engineers says they're getting the volume of methane gas they expected but Brent Whitesides is the first to admit there have been some glitches and problems along the way. WHITESIDES "The digester itself is working really well, better than expected. Just on a large commercial dairy there's different problems and so we're addressing those." Problems or not Whitesides and digester builder/owner Intrepid Technologies of Idaho Falls allow dairymen and others to see for themselves. Brad Frazee oversees the project for Intrepid. FRAZEE "Not all dairies are identical. They're all just slightly different. They've got different conditions, different situations and different needs. One of our tricks is to adapt this process to meet their needs versus just to throw a Band-Aid technology in front of them and hope is works." Intrepid's long range goal is a pipeline into which gas from various dairy digesters is fed and ultimately refined for commercial use. With an estimated 350 thousand livestock within seven miles of Wendell there's a potential for 30 million cubic feet of gas production per day. FRAZEE "It's the same thing that you buy from Intermountain Gas right now. As far as heating value and the actual chemical, the chemical in natural gas is methane." Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott