Manure-to-electricty plant planned for Greenbush farm

From an article by Josh Lintereur in the Sheboygan Press:

For the past 71 years, the cows at the Goeser family dairy farm in rural Plymouth have been fairly prolific at producing two things — milk and manure.

But by next year, the cows could also become a reliable source of renewable energy. Using a simple process that's been around for decades, a Milwaukee startup firm called U.S. Biogas has proposed building a small power plant at the farm that would use cow manure to create electricity.

At peak production, the plant, called an anaerobic digester, could process 15 million gallons of manure a year and produce enough electricity to power up to 1,200 homes.

The process would also produce a liquid fertilizer that can be used to grow crops, along with a fiber product that can be used as bedding for the farm's 2,000 cows. Any unused fiber — which is rich in nutrients — will be sold to nurseries and landscapers.

The benefit to the farm is that the resulting fertilizer would be mostly odor free, and its phosphorous content would be cut by 50 to 60 percent, meaning there would be significantly less phosphorous runoff into nearby lakes and streams.

"It's a good deal for us, and we feel it's a positive for the public," said Craig Goeser, who owns the third-generation dairy with his two brothers, Pat and Brian. "You're reducing the amount of phosphorous going out into the fields, so you're protecting the environment, and you're not burning coal to produce electricity."

If the project goes forward, the plant would be the only one of its kind operating at a Sheboygan County dairy farm, and it would join the growing number of manure digesters operating in Wisconsin, which produces more so-called cow power than any other state.