Marylanders could find their energy coming from an unusual source: chicken waste.
“We have a site. We have a plan” to build a plant to convert chicken waste into power, Attorney General Doug Gansler said at a Maryland Business for Responsive Government breakfast Monday at the Center Club.
But Maryland needs a power company to buy the power and distribute it,he said.
“My belief is that Maryland?s appetite for renewable energy is real, and the opportunity to build a power plant fueled by Maryland?s [poultry waste] is also real,” said Rupert Frasier, founder and CEO of Newtown, Pa.-based Fibrowatt, which has been eyeing the state for years to handle this energy conversion.
However, the “turmoil” in the state?s energy rates has slowed down the plan, he said.
“We intend and hope to build a project in the Eastern Shore,” he said.
Fibrowatt opened the country?s first poultry-waste-fueled power plant last week in Benson, Minn., using turkey waste for energy.
Because it?s burning a biomass, the plant?s emissions don?t have chemical toxins. The company still follows the relevant emissions regulations, Frasier said.
However, some activists aren?t convinced the technique is environmentally friendly.
“You want to make sure you are not creating a new problem for yourself,” said J. Drake Hamilton, a science policy director at St. Paul, Minn.-based Fresh Energy, a nonprofit advocating for clean energy.
The turkey waste in Minnesota has trace levels of mercury, which would enter the air if burned, she said. The toxins released in the air depend on what the animals were fed.
Environment Maryland, an advocacy group, opposed Fibrowatt?s plan several years ago because of concerns over toxins, State Director Brad Heavner said.
Turning the waste into gas makes it burn cleaner, Heavner said, but he still hasn?t seen emissions data.
HOW IT WORKS
Newtown, Penn.-based Fibrowatt opened a $150-million turkey-waste-fueled plant in Minnesota.
The waste is stored in sealed containers at negative pressure, and the air is used as combustion air, said Rupert Frasier, Fibrowatt founder and CEO.
The waste is burned at high temperatures,which heats water for a turbine that creates electricity.
