EATON — Two Weld County companies are cashing in on a plan to turn manure into energy.
JBS Five Rivers Cattle Feeding has been exploring ways to do just that for the past five years. Through a partnership with Harsh International Inc. of Eaton, a theory is close to becoming a reality.
Basically, the system would burn feedlot manure to the point that it produces a gas that could be used to produce steam energy.
Recently, JBS Five Rivers and Harsh demonstrated a prototype gasifier of what JBS intends to install at its newly renovated feedlot at Kuner, which is east of Kersey, by the end of this year.
The company intends to install three of the Harsh-built commercial gasifiers, which will replace the feedlot’s three boilers that are used to flake corn, part of the diet given to cattle.
Andy Brown of Harsh International said the gasifier was created by a Canadian inventor about 10 years ago. Harsh has developed what Brown called a strategic alliance to build the prototype — and eventually commercial units. The prototype can burn about 250 pounds of manure per hour; the commercial unit will handle 4,200 pounds.
“This is the most exciting thing I’ve been involved with in my career,” Brown, 79, said.
He bought Harsh in 1986 and runs the company with his son, Bob. For years, Harsh has been involved in the manufacture of hydraulic lifts and other agriculture equipment.
Tom McDonald, vice president of environmental affairs for JBS Five Rivers, said the new equipment will result in an 80 percent reduction in the natural gas that is presently used to operate the boilers. Each of the gasifiers, he said, will cost $425,000.
In comparison, John Slutskey, who operates a dairy near Wellington and is chairman of the Colorado Air Quality Commission, said a digester for his dairy would cost $1.3 million, or $1,000 a cow. But he and McDonald were quick to point out that a gasifier and a digester are two different types of technology. Feedlot manure, they said, contains a lot of dirt, unlike that of dairy manure, since those cows stand on solid flooring such as concrete.
McDonald said while JBS Five Rivers has been looking at the technology for the past five years, it was about two years ago when company officials approached Harsh to see if it could build the gasifier.
The gasifier works by taking the manure into a container much like what McDonald called a “pizza oven,” only once operational, it operates at 1,600 degrees. The gas coming off the manure is pulled into a waste heat boiler, which produces the steam to flake the corn.
