Biogas facility breaks ground in Duplin
By From staff reports
Published in News on December 19, 2016 9:57 AM
WARSAW -- Groundbreaking ceremonies for a $100 million biogas facility were held last Thursday at 855 Penny Branch Road in Warsaw. Biogas (also called renewable natural gas) is a clean-burning, "carbon-neutral" alternative to fossil fuels.
When completed it will be the largest utility-scale biogas facility in the U.S. capable of turning animal and food waste into enough energy to power 32,000 homes annually.
Located on 82 acres, the facility is the first in a pipeline of large-scale anaerobic digestion and biogas treatment facilities planned by Carbon Cycle Energy, the renewable energy development company based in Boulder, Colo.
Duplin County was selected because of its proximity to a natural gas pipeline and its optimal access to large volumes of agricultural and food waste.
With more than 530 hog operations, Duplin County has one of the highest concentrations of hog farms in the world. Processing swine waste via anaerobic digestion has been proven to dramatically reduce local emissions and nuisance odors, while also minimizing the potential for water contamination.
Scheduled for completion in 2017, the facility known as C2e Renewables NC will process in excess of 750,000 tons of organic waste per year.
It will produce enough fuel annually to generate approximately 290,000 MWH of electricity, far surpassing the capacity of any other standalone facility in the U.S., according to C2e CEO James Powell.
C2e has already signed contracts to supply 100 percent of the plant's output of biomethane to Duke Energy and a second, unnamed Fortune 500 company.
"This is a big development for biogas in North Carolina," Duke spokesman Randy Wheeless said. "It will be a major part of Duke Energy's efforts to meet the (renewable energy requirements) for swine waste-to-power in the state."
According to published reports, between 70 and 80 sealed trucks, which will be routed around Warsaw, will deliver waste to the plant daily.
At full capacity, the plant will generate 6,500 dekatherms of biomethane per day, equivalent to roughly 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
"The sheer size of this project means that it will have a huge environmental impact both by addressing the major pollution problem caused by greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing food and animal waste, and by producing an alternative to fossil fuels in commercially significant volumes," Powell said.
C2e has secured access to a variety of organic waste streams, comprised of manure and other agricultural waste as well as industrial food processing waste, which will be converted by anaerobic digesters into raw biogas, upgraded on site, and injected directly into the natural gas pipeline system.
Jerry Kovacich, COO and co-founder of C2e, described the company's sophisticated waste transport system design approach as one that maximizes the use of "closed-system to closed-system" technologies.
"By ensuring that vital energy value is not lost in the form of fugitive air emissions, odors are also dramatically reduced," he said. "Residents near our plants will actually be exposed to fewer odors and less risk of water contamination than what's often been experienced by neighbors of hog farm and pork processing operations in the past."
Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Carbon Cycle Energy, LLC ("C2e") is a renewable energy development company that designs, builds and owns anaerobic digestion facilities that provide economically sustainable pathways for the responsible conversion of organic waste into pipeline-grade biogas and other sustainable energy products.
For more information about the company, visit www.c2-energy.com.