May 29, 2006—Microgy, a subsidiary of Environmental Power Corporation, recently signed agreements to supply anaerobic digestion systems to convert cow manure to biogas in both Texas and Nebraska.
Microgy agreed to supply a multi-digester biogas production and gas conditioning facility at the Mission Dairy in Hereford, Texas. When completed, the facility’s eight 916,000-gallon digesters will convert the manure from 10,000 cows into one billion cubic feet of biogas per year, supplying the methane to a nearby natural gas pipeline. Microgy will design, construct, own, and operate the facility.
The company also agreed to provide a similar system at Swift & Company’s beef processing plant in Grand Island, Nebraska. Once constructed, the biogas production facility will extract methane-rich biogas from animal wastes, meat-processing wastes, and certain wastewater plant residual streams that would otherwise be landfilled or land applied. The agreement may be expanded in the future to include Swift’s seven other beef and pork production facilities throughout North America. Swift & Company is reportedly the world’s second-largest processor of fresh beef and pork products.
