WSWMD approves deal with Carbon Harvest (Brattleboro Reformer)
Posted on January 24, 2011 by admin
By JAIME CONE
September 1, 2009 BRATTLEBORO — A new project at the Windham Solid Waste Management District will soon be underway pending the approval of permits after the WSWMD board of supervisors approved a contract with Carbon Harvest Energy LLC Thursday. “The board actually cheered,” said George Murray, WSWMD executive director. “It was a very happy moment for everybody.” “We’ve been looking forward to this day and we’re ready to get busy,” said Don McCormick, president of Carbon Harvest Energy. The project is being called Brattleboro Carbon Harvest, and the board’s approval means that Carbon Harvest will take over the landfill gas collection system at the district and use the gas collected at the closed landfill to generate renewable electrical power. But there’s a lot more to it than that. The project will also produce algae that can be converted into organic fuels and animal feed, along with locally grown vegetables and locally raised fish. The contract negotiations for the project started in May, and the board members were “quite involved” in the process, Murray said. “All these eyes looking at a contract — even though it was time consuming, I think it helped everybody on both sides,” he said.
The project is exciting, Murray said, because it combines so many different elements. In fact, he said, it is one of the first in the country to do so. Greenhouses are becoming more common, he said, but to incorporate a fish farm and an algae production project along with other components is unusual. “They want it to be a showplace, the first one of an innovative project,” Murray said. “We’re pretty excited that it can be done.” McCormick said that all the different aspects of the project will work together, depending on one another for success. The algae, he said, will hopefully be used as a source of fuel. “Algae is the most promising source for biodiesel fuel,” he said. “It’s about 30 times more conductive than the plant-based oils being experimented with right now.” “That’s about half of algae,” he said. The other half is “absolutely ideal” for fish and poultry feed. He said the fish would be high quality food — tilapia raised without the use of any kind of antibiotics or hormones. “We can’t use those things because the waste from the fish goes into feeding the plants,” he said. “Everything loops, one from the other.” He said this is why he believes it’s a good model of a sustainable business project. The majority of the food produced will be given to the Vermont Food Bank, he said. Lettuce and other greens will be grown in green houses, providing locals with fresh, local produce even during the winter months. McCormick has already spoken with the food bank in preparation for the day when the project begins to produce food. He said he is hoping to have all the elements of the project up and running by next fall. “I expect to have eight to 10 employees working on site when it’s finished,” he said. “We’ll start to grow pretty quickly that way.” Murray said Carbon Harvest is looking at other sites across the state as well, but the WSWMD was an ideal place for Carbon Harvest to start because the current generator there provides an existing infrastructure for the project. In the 1980’s, Murray explained, the landfill’s former owner bought the WSWMD’s existing generator and constructed a gas-to-electric project. He was one of the first in the United States to do so. The site used to produce electricity that was sold to Central Vermont Public Service, but the generator stopped running in December of last year. Carbon Harvest is going to install a new generator, he said, and repair the old one for use as a back-up. Murray said that a landfill has an optimum life span of about 20 years for producing power after it is closed and capped. The microbes that decompose the organic fraction of the waste give off methane which can be used to generate electricity, Murray said, but those microbes slow down over time as the waste is decomposed. The landfill on Old Ferry Road has been closed since 1995. Murray said Carbon Harvest is expecting about eight to 10 years of electrical production. “When it’s not economical to produce electricity, they’ll be able to use the gas for heating the greenhouse with a gas-fired furnace,” he explained. He said Carbon Harvest will also be evaluating the possibility of installing new faction wells that would access areas that might have more gas in them. “I just want to say thanks to Windham Solid Waste Management District,” said McCormick. “It’s been a lot of work to think this through, and they were fantastic and supportive, as has been everyone weve worked with in Brattleboro.” “With a project like this it’s really meaningful to have the community behind you,” he said, “so we feel great.” Jaime Cone can be reached at jcone@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 277.