Biogas distribution network approved
Dairy Herd news source
| Thursday, November 20, 2008
The first biogas distribution network in the nation has been approved in Kern County California. This project will link up nine farms to generate electricity for California homes. The project is headed up by BioEnergy Solutions in Bakersfield, Calif. Construction will begin in early 2009.
Three of the nine farms have already agreed to supply biogas to the network: C&R Vanderham Dairy, Whiteside Dairy and Vermeer and Goedhart Dairy. The combined herd of 6,500-cows is expected to produce 615,000 cubic feet of natural gas a day, enough to generate power for 3,000 California homes.
BioEnergy Solutions will construct an underground pipeline linking the dairies. Biogas from the farms will be transported through the pipeline to an upgrade facility located at the Vermeer and Goedhart Dairy in Shafter, Calif.
Manure will be mixed with water and flushed into a large covered lagoon on each farm. As the manure breaks down methane gas will be captured and delivered through an underground pipeline to the purification facility to remove its corrosive materials and upgrade it to utility standards. The resulting renewable natural gas, more than 99 percent pure methane, will be pressurized and delivered into the Pacific Gas & Electric pipeline for use in the production of energy for residential customers in northern and central California.
The nine-farm network could include as many as 26,700-cows, 17 percent of the dairy herd population in Kern County, and produce enough clean-burning natural gas to meet the energy needs of 12,000 California homes. This cluster of dairies could also reduce the equivalent of 220,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is the same as taking 38,500 cars off local roads.
BioEnergy Solutions
