EQIP Project Generates Some Real Energy

In northeastern Nebraska, an innovative NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) project is reducing contamination and odors from manure while creating a clean, sustainable source of electricity.

Danny and Josie Kluthe’s farm is home to a unique renewable energy source. Methane gas created by manure from their hogs is used to generate electricity. This facility is the first of its kind in Nebraska. EQIP dollars were used to help fund some of the practices involved in this project (Photo courtesy of Schuyler Sun)

When Danny and Josie Kluthe  decided to expand their 4,000-head hog operation near Dodge, Nebraska, they were concerned about the waste and odors associated with large-scale animal feeding operations affecting their neighbors. Through a partnership with the Nebraska Public Power District and a $200,000 grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, the Kluthes have established Nebraska’s first digester system to produce electricity from recovered methane.

The digester system stirs and heats waste releasing methane gas used to fire a steam turbine generator producing electricity that is sold  to a local power utility. The farm produces 549,000 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to power 35 homes for one year. In addition to producing electricity, the recovery process prevents the release of methane into the atmosphere. EQIP funding was used for the completion of a waste control facility, a manure transfer pump, and tree planting.

 “Four or five years ago, the hog industry was really struggling for a profit. It was around that time that I first started thinking about doing this,” said Danny Kluthe. “If I had walked into a banker’s office and proposed this project, they probably would have turned me down.”

Using recovered methane to generate electricity in a closed-loop system prevents methane emissions — thought to contribute to global warming — by making a nutrient-rich fluid by-product of the process is that is preferable to regular manure for fertilizing agricultural lands.  More than 99 percent of pathogens in the effluent are destroyed, reducing the potential of surface water contamination from fertilizer runoff. (from an article appearing in the November issue of the Nebraska Environmental Trust’s newsletter Resource.)
Your contact is Joanna Pope, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 402-437-4123.