Holsteins provide raw material to run dairy's power plant

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StarTribune.com - 3/12. As Minnesota edges closer to a potential electricity shortage, farmer Dennis Haubenschild is testing a new source of power: cows. At his family's dairy near Princeton, the Haubenschilds are converting manure to electricity and simultaneously reducing odor in an experiement they say will improve air qualitry near feed-lots.

In January, the coldest month of the year, the farm produced enouugh methane from its 850 cows to power the dairy operation and 78 homes. The farm - the only one in minnesota with a fully operational anerobic digester - demonstrates how farmers can help the state become more energy self-reliant, Haubenschild said.

Manure is heated to 95 to 105 degrees to speed up its digestion by bacteria. the process produces "biogas" that contains 55-70% methane. Alternative energy isn't the only benefit. The digester process greatly reduces the manure's stink, greenhouse gases and pathogens, while boosting the fertilizing value of the manure.

Hauenschild said that his digester process enabled him to save 35 tons of coal and 1,200 gallons of propane that he otherwise would have used in January. During spring planting he won't have to use 34 gallons of propane or natural gas per acre to make anhydrous ammonia.

Every day, about 20,000 gallons of manure are pumped to collection flumes beneath two barns, and then into the digester, a 400,000 gallon tank. Before the Haugenschilds began using the digester, the smell of freshly mixed and spread manure would drift 2 or 3 miles and last four days. Now, a much milder smell from the digested effluent disappears overnight after apreading.

In the silvery-colored digester, biogas builds up. It's routed to an engine and generator, which convert it to electricity and hot water. The electricity flows to a transformer and the water heats the digester and barn floors. A third of the electricity returns to the farm. Two-thirds is sold to the local cooperative serving about 43,000 customers. In January, the Haugenschilds earned $4,380 selling electricity.

-- John Littmann (LITTMANNJOHNTL@AOL.COM), March 13, 2001

Answers

They've been doing this for over 20
years in India.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), March 13, 2001.

These are my favorite Grassroot posts; environmental, micro-economic success stories.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@altavista.com), March 13, 2001.

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