The world’s largest biomass power plant running exclusively on chicken manure has opened in the Netherlands. The plant cost €150 million (217 million US $) and will generate renewable electricity to 90,000 households.
This plant reduces a major environmental problem in the Netherlands, approximately 1,320,000 tons of chicken manure per year. The plant will use one third of this amount approximately 440,000 tons to generate electricity.
Interestingly, the biomass power plant is more than merely "carbon neutral". If the chicken manure were to be spread out over farm land, it would release not only CO2, but also methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. By using the manure for power generation, the release of methane is avoided.
The biomass power plant - unique because it exclusively burns chicken manure - has a capacity of 36.5MW, and will generate more than 270 million kWh of electricity per year. The facility is located on the Moerdijk in Zeeland, and will serve approximately 90,000 households.
To avoid the manure's stench, the engineers who built the facility took care to address this issue: all the manure is transported in airtight trucks and is only released for processing once the trucks have entered an air lock in the fuel processing area.
Source: Delta: Van mest naar stroom - September 3, 2008.
Biopact and Metaefficient
Friday, September 5, 2008
Chicken Manure is Generating Electricity in the Netherlands
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1 comments:
I have read something similar to this idea. It is a manure plant built in California. The plant uses cows manure instead to generate energy. The place where the manure was dumped was completely open to the air. You can imagine the implications of that! It was built away from residential or commerical areas.
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