Minnesota Goes To the Birds with Full Commercial Operation of First Large-Scale Poultry Litter Cogen in the U.S.

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Fibrominn LLC, a subsidiary of Fibrowatt LLC (Newtown, Pennsylvania), has completed construction and is in start-up testing for the $200 million, 55-megawatt Benson Poultry Cogen located in Benson, Minnesota. The Benson facility is the first poultry litter-fired power plant in the U.S. and the largest in the world to utilize a combination of bird droppings, wood chips, seed hulls, shed feathers and spilled feed. The facility will consume nearly 40% of the poultry waste created by the state of Minnesota and produce fertilizer as a byproduct. The fertilizer will be sold to North American Fertilizer LLC (Benson, Minnesota) located adjacent to the new station. The plant will provide enough ash to eventually produce up to 80,000 tons of fertilizer per year.

Construction for the project started during the summer of 2004 and is set to commence full commercial operations this month. The project consisted of a Foster Wheeler boiler, which will utilize 700,000 tons of poultry litter and vegetative biomass to generate enough steam to power a 55-megawatt Fuji Heavy Industries steam turbine generator. The new plant will also feature emissions reduction technology. A Harmon Fabric Filter and Spray Dryer Absorber will be used to control particulate matter such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfuric acid (H2SO4) mist, and hydrochloric acid (HCl). A selective non-catalytic reduction system will control nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

Fibrominn currently has a 21-year power purchase agreement with Northern States Power, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy (NYSE:XEL ) (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Fibrowatt LLC has been approached by poultry industry leaders in several other states as a solution to the problem of litter waste disposal and is looking at the possibility of developing similar plants in those states as well. Fibrowatt LLC is jointly owned by Homeland Renewable Energy LLC (Boston, Massachusetts) (70%) and Fibrowatt Limited of the United Kingdom (30%)

SNC-Lavalin Incorporated, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, provided the turnkey E+P+C (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) services for the project.

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