The first power plant in the United States to generate electricity from turkey manure began operating in May in the west-central Minnesota town of Benson. The $202 million Fibrominn, LLC, plant runs 24 hours a day and produces 55 megawatts of electricity—enough for roughly 50,000 homes—which it sells under a 21-year contract to Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy.
Fibrominn not only produces power from a locally available renewable resource rather than from fossil fuels, it also solves a problem for large-scale poultry operators, who would otherwise have to devote time to manure management: finding buyers and haulers, and coordinating their barn cleanouts with them.
As biomass fuels go, turkey litter—which is a mix of droppings, feathers, and bedding materials—also presents some problems for Fibrominn, according to Rupert Fraser, CEO of Pennsylvania-based Fibrowatt USA, Fibrominn’s parent company. “It’s highly alkaline, it’s difficult to handle, and there are combustion challenges,” he says. Trucks that haul the litter from farms for Fibrominn have to be disinfected to prevent the spread of disease from flock to flock. Wood chips or other plant materials have to be added to the bird litter to offset its high moisture levels. And high alkaline content means lots of ash is produced when the litter is burned.
Fraser’s father developed Fibrowatt’s technology in Great Britain, where he built three poultry-dung-powered electric plants that have been running since the 1990s. Studies of those operations persuaded the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and community leaders in Benson that the operations and emissions are clean and safe.
Fibrominn will buy roughly 600,000 tons of litter annually from poultry growers—most in Minnesota, but some in neighboring states. Once it’s trucked in to the Benson plant, the litter is burned to heat a boiler that produces steam that powers a turbine that generates electricity.
The ash from Fibrominn, though it’s lost most of the nitrogen content needed for crops like corn and soybeans, contains other fertilizers—potassium and phosphorus. Fraser says the ash is cleaner, gives greater concentrations of those nutrients, and is easier to transport than turkey litter itself is. Fibrominn sells its ash to North American Fertilizer, LLC, which is owned by a consortium of local businesspeople and has a plant next to Fibrominn’s in Benson.
Fraser expects Fibrominn to be profitable, generating $40 million in revenue annually. And he plans to expand: “We’re being approached by poultry companies and local communities in North Carolina, Arkansas, [and elsewhere], who are extremely keen for us to do it again.”
