Boone County farmers look into using biomass to produce energyBy LAURA LATZKO
Missouri Bioenergy LLC is made up of three farmers who formed the group this past year to explore the possibility of locating a biomass facility in Columbia. It has conducted a study looking at the amount of agricultural products that would potentially be needed along with start-up costs and profit potential. “Any landowner could have pasture land laying idle,” said Gene Sandner, group spokesman. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a farmer. It can be any landowner that wants to increase ... profits.” Sandner, the co-owner of S&S Seeds, S&S Farms and Evergreen Sod Farm, said now that the feasibility study is finished, the group will be able to better determine if it is going to go forward with raising money and building a facility. The group should know whether it will move forward sometime this year, Sandner said. The group hired Deanne Hackman, a former director of business development for the Missouri Department of Agriculture who has worked with biodiesel co-ops, to conduct the feasibility study and put together a business plan. Hackman said one of the main focuses of her study was what agricultural products are available in Missouri. “We are all hoping this is a business that makes sense for central Missouri,” Hackman said. The study has shown that it would be possible for the group to partner with Columbia, but this would depend on the price that the city Water and Light Department would be willing to pay for the alternative fuel. The study has identified prices that would make the venture profitable for the group, and it is determined to negotiate based on these projected amounts, Sandner said. If the group goes ahead with the project, there is a chance that switch grass or another cellulosic product would be mixed with coal and burned at the city power plant. Sandner, who has planted 100 acres of switch grass on his property, said the native grass would work well because it is a perennial, doesn’t require a lot of fertilizer and has a high British thermal unit value, meaning it can create a high amount of energy. Other biomass possibilities include corn stover, bluestem or Indian grass, he said. Switch grass is a tall grass that grows best during warmer seasons and needs to be planted in the spring. Corn stover is the leaves and stalks left over after corn is harvested. Bluestems are tufted grasses used for hay and forage. Indian grass is a perennial grass that grows 3 to 7 feet tall. Tad Johnsen, superintendent of the Municipal Power Plant, said he has had informal talks with Sandner and two other groups, but he said that Sandner’s group’s concept was the best potential fit for the plant in terms of cost and location. Johnsen said that burning switchgrass or other biomass is not possible, though, at this time because it would be more expensive than coal. Johnsen said that waste wood, such as the leftover wood chips that the power plant has burned starting in 2008, is a better resource because it doesn’t require extra labor like switchgrass or corn stover would. He said waste wood is more readily available, and its cost is competitive with coal. The Water and Light Department staff would need to have further discussion on the group’s plans for biomass supplies as well as negotiate costs before the process could move forward, and the City Council would need to approve the burning of any biomass material at the plant, Johnsen said. In June, Sandner made a presentation to the Water and Light Advisory Board, and its members agree that right now this type of energy too costly. John Conway, chairman of the board, said the talks with Sandner are preliminary. “It’s still out there on whether or not it seriously needs to be considered,” Conway said. “It has to make economic sense to the city.” Dick Parker, a former biology professor at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville who attended the June meeting of th advisory board, said Sandner’s group talked about plans to build a biomass facility near the Municipal Power Plant. Parker said that this potential location would work well because it’s close to rail lines owned by the city, making for easier transportation of agricultural materials. While the city is concerned with costs, Parker said he’s more interested in the affect that growing switch grass and other agricultural materials would have on more traditional crops, cattle and forests. Parker, a member of the city’s Power Supply Task Force that helped create a plan for Columbia’s future energy use, said one of his fears is that forests will be clear cut for waste wood and to plant switch grass and other energy crops. He said that he is afraid that land used for food crops would instead be used to grow biomass products. “I am hoping it doesn’t compete in a way that cuts into food production,” Parker said. Sandner said the switch grass would be grown in different parts of Missouri and shipped to Columbia. A biomass facility could create local jobs and provide new opportunities for landowners and farmers growing more traditional crops, such as soybeans and corn. Ed Cahoj, president of the National Biomass Producers’ Association, a nonprofit group out of Louisburg that is exploring the idea of turning alternative fuel into different forms of energy, said switch grass can fully develop three years after it has been planted. He said that in parts of Missouri north of Louisburg, which is located in the southwest part of Missouri, switch grass may be a harder sell because traditional row crops, such as corn and soybeans, grow well in these parts of the state. Sandner said that with some grasses, such as switch grass, don’t produce much the first year. He said that other agricultural products may be more readily available to his group, such as corn stover or native warm season grasses. A farmer who has already been through this process, Steve Flick, said that using a combination of different grasses can be the best method. Flick is a member of the Show Me Energy Cooperative, a group that produces pelletized forms of biomass that are burned at a coal-fired plant in Kansas City. The cooperative provides about 100,000 tons of biomass products a year to the plant, which represents 10 percent to 13 percent of the electrical output of a 50-megawatt plant. His group, which did testing at the Missouri University of Science and Technology for two years, found that burning a combination of switch grass, bluestems, Indian grass, crop residue and straw works best. Flick said that his group’s plant cost about $7 million to build and was financed by farmers in the group. About 400 people from 28 counties within 85 miles of Centerview are involved in the cooperative. He said the group was formed in 2004 with five people, and it took about five years to plan, finance and build the plant. The materials used at the plant come from a number of different areas. Agricultural products are grown at farms located in cities such as Kansas City, Topeka, Kan., and Nevada, Mo. Flick said that one limiting factor of biomass is that it has to come from counties within 100 miles of Centerview because of transportation costs. Benefits of using biomass include reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury, Flick said. He said that carbon dioxide is reduced more than a ton for every ton of biomass used. The plant has also created jobs that pay up to $75,000 a year in skilled positions, such as managers, programmers and machine operators. Flick said that the greatest benefit of the plant has been that it has allowed these farmers to develop an added source of income and keeps money in the community. “They are stockholders,” Flick said. “They own the plant.” |
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