Old tires + manure= energy

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Biogas company seeks permit to use 40,000 waste tires for manure digester
by Abby Haight, The Oregonian
Wednesday June 03, 2009, 11:36 AM

Motoya Nakamura/The Oregonian

Dairy production at Threemile Canyon Farms near Boardman.A biogas company wants a permit to produce energy from two banes to the environment -- waste tires and cow manure.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will host an informational meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 9, in Boardman to discuss the waste tire storage permit application of Northwest Biogas, which wants to use 40,000 waste tires as a growing media for micro-organisms in an anaerobic digester.

The digester would be at Threemile Canyon Farms in Boardman, one of the largest dairies in the country, and would use manure from the farm's 17,000 cows.

Late last year, Threemile Canyon Farms entered an agreement with Northwest Natural Gas and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to install a digester that would clean methane -- one of the worst greenhouse gases -- and produce an alternative to natural gas use.

Northwest Natural and the foundation invested $1 million in the digester project. Northwest Natural, which benefited from state tax credits, would fund the $20,000 yearly operating cost by its 6,300 customers who pay extra for green energy projects.

Northwest Biogas has proposed using the waste tires inside the lined and covered digester. The company has agreed to clean, remove and recycle the tires if the facility ceases operation.

The dairy cows each produce 120 pounds of waste daily, including water used to flush away the manure. The waste is routed into manure lagoons, where it releases methane. The digester would use only a fraction of the manure -- from about 1,000 to 1,400 cows.

But proponents note that the cleaned methane is a renewable alternative to natural gas. Generators also use methane to produce electricity.

Using waste tires eliminates the potential for tire fires and the breeding ground for pests like mosquitoes, they say.

The informational meeting is at the Boardman City Hall conference room, 200 City Center Circle.

-- Abby Haight; abbyhaight@news.oregonian.com