Citizens' BION Forum

Abstract:

On paper, Bion Technologies' plan to build an ethanol plant in the Ogdensburg area ought to be an environmentalist's fantasy come true. The company is proposing to build an ethanol plant that would turn corn and manure into fuels to help reduce the nation's dependence on oil and fossil fuels. While the company would need to ship corn from the Midwest to St. Lawrence County to produce ethanol, the wet fermented corn mash that would be left over after the ethanol was produced could be fed to cattle.

Full Text:

(EDITOR'S NOTE - The following is the first in a series of articles in the Advance News examining the proposed Bion project.

On paper, Bion Technologies' plan to build an ethanol plant in the Ogdensburg area ought to be an environmentalist's fantasy come true.

The company is proposing to build an ethanol plant that would turn corn and manure into fuels to help reduce the nation's dependence on oil and fossil fuels.

While the company would need to ship corn from the Midwest to St. Lawrence County to produce ethanol, the wet fermented corn mash that would be left over after the ethanol was produced could be fed to cattle.

Bion's developers want to collect the cow manure from the six beef cattle farms its proposing and use it to fuel the ethanol plant. The company argues it can take the number one cause of water pollution, manure, and by using it as a fuel for the ethanol plant, reduce their company's costs to produce ethanol by an estimated $40 million a year (the cost of burning natural gas), plus reduce costs by an additional $8 million a year by using wet distillers grain for animal feed.

The residuals of the manure, left over after it's been used to produce fuel, would then be converted into a fertilizer that could be sold to farmers and gardeners.

In effect, the company says, its project would transform manure from a costly problem that plagues most large farms into a fuel and a commercial fertilizer, while reducing the nation's dependence on fossil fuel and helping to strengthen the farm economy.

What's not to like?

Yet when people hear more details about the project, they begin wondering whether the facility could have other impacts.

Company officials say that to make the project profitable, the company needs to make it large enough to bring major economies of scale into play to ensure it's long-term economic viability.

While large confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) across the nation are considered one of the nation's biggest environmental problems because of the water and air pollution problems associated with them, Bion officials argue their integrated system turns the "problems" into revenue sources, while eliminating most of the air and water pollution problems.

Bion argues that most of the nation's cattle-feeding operations typically need two acres of land for each cow to properly dispose of the manure generated by each cow. Their operation, they say, eliminates the need for that much land, by turning the manure into fuel and commercial fertilizer.

With Bion's bioreactive system, the company argues each of its six farms with 14,000 cows each would only need to be 200 to 300 acres each. The company says peer reviewed scientific studies show their patented technology reduces air and water pollution dramatically.

But to accomplish that goal, they say, they need a large scale operation to achieve economies of scale.

Creating that economy of scale will mean developing six beef cattle farms with 14,000 cows on each farm within a 10-mile radius of the ethanol plant.

Each of the six beef cattle farms will have four barns, approximately two acres in size that will house 3,500 cows. Each barn will be about twice the size of a football field.

Under the plan, Bion will buy cattle when they are 500 to 800 pounds each and feed them for several months until they reach slaughter weights of 1,100 to 1,400 pounds. The cattle would then be slaughtered and sold as beef.

Bion argues that their system removes one of the biggest problems posed by large animal feeding operations, turning the disposal of vast quantities of manure from an expensive disposal problem into a resource that can generate substantial energy savings, providing them with additional revenue streams that makes them more competitive than other ethanol plants or beef cattle feeding operations.

Penn State's agricultural science department says cattle feeding operations are more economical and less risky when large number of cattle are fed. The cost to feed a cow drops as the numbers increase in an operation.

Nationally, feedlots with more than 32,000 head comprise less than one percent of the total farm feedlots in the nation, but account for nearly 35 percent of the cattle sold.

About 96 percent of all beef cattle operations have fewer than 1,000 head of cattle, but small lots account for only 18 percent of the cattle fed each year.

Penn State agricultural officials say large scale cattle feeding operations pose severe risks to operators because of the fluctuations in beef prices, the fluctuations in corn and grain prices, and other risks. But large scale operations can reduce the risk to operators because of the lower cost per cow.

While hauling corn from the Midwest to Northern New York is an added cost, compared to their midwest cattle feeding competitors in the Midwest, the corn they'll be purchasing will do double-duty, first serving as the major ingredient for their ethanol producing plant.

The residual mash left over after the corn has been turned into ethanol will be used to help feed the cattle, reducing one of the major costs for a cattle feeding operation.

The manure, from the cattle feeding operation, will be collected at each of the six farms, processed through a Bion's bioreactor at each farm, where it will be turned in a dry brick and hauled to the ethanol plant where it will be used as fuel to dry the corn mash and to cook the corn into ethanol.

Since most cattle feeding operations have to spend heavily to contain and treat the manure produced from the vast number of cows on their operation, Bion officials argue that their technology provides them with another major competitive advantage because the manure provides them with two valuable revenue sources that will both reduce their overall cost of operation while providing them with additional revenues.

By using the manure as fuel to turn the corn into ethanol, they will not have to buy natural gas or other costly fuels. Secondly, when the manure is turned into fuel, the residual solids will be turned into an organic solid that can be sold as fertilizer for gardeners or farmers.

In a study by Clarkson University, an analysis reported that Bion Technologies says the company has a "bioreactor system" that will be located at each of the six cattle feeding operation that will treat the manure to produce dried bricks that will be trucked to the ethanol plant.

The water that is left over after the manure is turned into dried bricks will be dispersed into a constructed wetland surrounding the feeding operation.

Clarkson's study reported that Bion intends to collect the manure from the cows feeding inside the barns three times a day.

The cows will be standing on a slotted floor that will allow for the regular collection of the manure.

Bion officials say that with agricultural run off currently considered the leading cause of water pollution, their technology offer hope to many of the nation's large animal feeding operations at major dairy farms, cattle feeding, pig feeding, poultry feeding and other industrial sized farms.