Members Report – September 17, 2008

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I planned on setting up a visit to a plant, seven miles east of Jay that is developing a way to process chicken litter into Methane Gas and liquid fertilizer. In short, I was quite impressed with the potential of this technology to become a significant player in finding a solution to the chicken litter problem with respect to water quality. I’ll be putting together a story for next week’s Chronicle with the details and I’ll forward it to the membership when it is completed, but below is a capsule version.

The primary two participants are former engineers with Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville. They have been working on the project for approximately ten years and have completed the laboratory test phases of their concept and are now working on Phase I. Phase I includes testing their laboratory findings in a commercial approach. They’re 99% sure their laboratory finding can be reproduced in a commercial setting without any loss of efficiency. The secondary objective of Phase I will to be the development of an economic study, with the participation of OSU, the Soil Conservation Department and others, to determine if the concept can turn a profit. Their preliminary thinking is that 10-12% is attainable and therein lies the problem. They are 80% sure of that assumption.

They’re in the latter stages of the construction of Phase I and without budget constraints could be operational by late November of this year. They are trying to raise approximately $450K for the completion of construction and $200K for operational start-up. Venture Capitalists don’t seem to be too interested in something falling in the 10-12% return on investment opportunity. Their current plan is to try to finance it themselves.

Here’s the sort version of the plan: Chicken litter is brought to the plant and is consumed by micro-organisms and bacteria to produce energy and a form of fertilizer that meets commercial standards and can be sold. The energy is in the form of Methane Gas and will be used to power a generator capable of producing 2.5 -5.0 Megawatts of electricity which will be pumped back into the power grid for a profit. The generator’s exhaust will reach nearly 2000 degrees in temperature and will be used to develop the steam used in the operation.

The plan would seem to have a great deal of merit and the developers envision several of these plants along the Oklahoma/Arkansas state lines to accommodate the thousands of Chicken contract growers. This would certainly appear to be a project worthy of our support and I plan to work on the following:

Have the developers of the process as guest speakers at a Grand Lake Chamber Meeting.

Encourage the chamber to endorse the project and bring about pressure for financial assistance from people like REC, GRDA and Federal and State agencies.

Contact the Chicken Cartel about their possible support.

Bring the project to the attention of our legislators at both the state and federal levels.

That gives you a brief overview of the project. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. I’ll forward the full version upon its completion.

Cheers