Phase I of Potentially Largest Methane Gas Digester Facility in U.S. Proceeds with Commissioning

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Heartland Biogas LLC (La Salle, Colorado), a joint venture between EDF Renewable Energy Incorporated (San Diego, California) (a subsidiary of Electricite de France SA (EPA:EDF) (Paris, France)), and AgEnergyUSA LLC (Hampton, New Hampshire), has commenced phase I commissioning of potentially the largest methane gas digester facility in the U.S., located in Weld County, Colorado.

The cattle manure-to-energy facility was originally proposed by Heartland Renewable Energy LLC (Longmont, Colorado) back in 2010 with developer AGPROfessionals LLC (Greely, Colorado), but financing and gas off-take agreements never took place, and the estimated $50 million project was abandoned in late 2011 due to insufficient ROI (return on investment).

In September 2013, EDF Renewable Energy announced it had closed on the membership interest purchase agreement to acquire the Heartland Biogas Project with Heartland Renewable Energy.

A 20-year gas purchase agreement was made with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), and development of the project proceeded with contractor HDR Constructors Incorporated (Kansas City, Missouri), a subsidiary of HDR Incorporated (Omaha, Nebraska), as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm.

Phase I of the project involved the installation of the manure pits, substrate and dosing systems as well as the installation of six 1.7 million gallon bio-reactors. The biogas upgrading trains will convert and compress the methane gas into 4,700 MM Btu (million British thermal units) per day of pipeline quality natural gas. Pipeline tie-in injections will be made with Colorado Interstate Gas Company LLC (Houston, Texas), a Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) (Houston, Texas) company, and be used by SMUD for electric generation.

Phase II of the project, which is currently under development, will involve the installation of four additional bio-reactors and an additional upgrading train that will boost methane gas production at the facility to 7,000MM Btu/day, making it the largest in the U.S. The installation of a combined-cycle power plant is also included in phase II of the project.

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