Market Feasibility for Products Developed at the Cashton Greens Energy Park
Cashton Area Development Corporation,and Stephen Joseph, BEST Energies March 15, 2006

Overall Project Introduction
Wisconsin's dairy industry has a $20.6 billion impact on the state's economy. The growth in dairy is directly related to the industry’s ability to manage growth. This ability to grow is tremendously hampered by the ability to manage manure safely and efficiently using the inherent nutrient value of the manure for growing crops while not engaging in practices that contaminate the ground water, surface water and drinking water. Unfortunately, the current manure management condition in Wisconsin is more of a land disposal practice than it is a nutrient management activity.

In 2005 there were 52 major manure spills in Wisconsin that contaminated wells, poisoned streams and threatened the health of people living in the countryside. Today, in the small community of Wayside, WI there are 43 private wells contaminated with nitrates and fecal bacteria; the direct result of poor manure management practices. There simply is not a management technology that will allow the dairy men and women to manage their manure in ways that preserve and reform the nutrients into a usable form without contaminating the environment. The current manure management condition in Wisconsin then is that dairy farmers cannot grow unless they purchase or rent more land to spread their manure and even then, they have to apply manure at times of the year when there is significant opportunity for manure runoff into the drainage ways, surface waters and infiltration into the groundwater or on land that is saturated with phosphorus.

The State of Wisconsin through its agricultural and environmental agencies (DATCP and WDNR, respectively) has taken a proactive approach to stemming the environmental damage that manure runoff causes. The Manure Management Task Force recently came forward with their recommendations to the Wisconsin Legislature and the recommendations passed unanimously (March 1, 2006). Some of the more salient recommendations are that the DATCP and WDNR should focus on actions that take advantage of the sustainable practice of land application of manure by implementing of phosphorous-based nutrient management plans. And, that Research efforts should continue to examine the environmental impacts of manure runoff events (including impacts from phosphorous and other nutrients, pathogens, ammonia, biochemical oxygen demand, and effects on groundwater) and should study the effectiveness of practices in protecting water quality. And finally, the recommendation to develop a regional pilot program to test the effectiveness of limited enforcement protection and other incentives for farmers who meet standards for superior environmental performance.

These recommendations all direct DATCP and WDNR to work with the private sector to support and expand the use of environmental management systems and other comprehensive planning tools through the Green Tier Program or other market incentive-based approaches for manure management in Wisconsin.
Creating Wisconsin’s Cellulosic- Based Biomass Economy

The convergence of an excess supply of manure, the need for Wisconsin’s farms to grow, the application of nutrients that are beneficial to the soil, the need for renewable energy and the urgency for a new regionally-based environmental management system that uses the qualities of the manure biomass as an opportunity, serves as the basis for the following overall project to develop the cellulosic-based bioindustry in Wisconsin.
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Governor’s Bio-Industry Consortium

Also in 2005, the Governor appointed a “Bio-Industry Consortium” working group that is charged to develop the following six subject areas, expressed here as goals:
1. Expand markets for biobased energy, fuels, and products,
2. Facilitate development of biobased businesses,
3. Meet technology needs,
4. Manage financial risk and attract investment,
5. Develop innovative public policies, and
6. Reach out to – and educate – the public, government officials, and businesspersons.

A seventh and more technical subject – available raw materials, conversion processes, and products– is being addressed in phase I of an external study of Wisconsin’s opportunities and competitive advantages in the bioeconomy. The study is being performed by a group of research organizations under the direction of the Energy Center of Wisconsin and is being funded by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Department of Administration, and Department of Natural Resources. The study will identify Wisconsin’s competitive advantage in biofuels and biobased products and will be coordinated with, and support, the work of the consortium. A technical projects team has been appointed to oversee the work of the opportunities and advantages study and serve as liaison between the study group and the consortium.

This seventh subject area is where our current efforts add increasing value to Wisconsin’s emerging cellulosic-based economy. Our effort is led by a private group of entrepreneurial individuals and businesses rather than the Energy Center of Wisconsin and the State Agencies of DATCP and WDNR. We are grateful for funding from DATCP and the State of Wisconsin to provide a second, more market-driven approach to discovering opportunities for the emerging bioindustry in Wisconsin. The goal of our effort is to demonstrate the technology of slow pyrolysis of bovine manure to solve the multiple problems manure management has created in Wisconsin.

We are focused to accomplish the following objectives that have direct application to the needs of the State of Wisconsin as identified by both the Manure Management Task Force and the Governor’s Bio-Industry Consortium working group:

• Demonstrate that the novel pyrolysis technology is capable of removing at least 75% of the nutrients from the waste stream generated by a dairy operation.
o A critical barrier to attaining widespread adoption of nutrient control for concentrated animal feeding operations is the lack of a proven technology offering clear economic advantages. As animal feeding operations have become larger, land application practices have become unacceptable because the nutrients imported to the farm have grown out of balance with the fertilizer needs of the local land.
o Developing a regional solution to manure management allows farms of all sizes to participate in advances manure management. Recent anecdotal evidence suggests that smaller operators are many times a larger problem than large operators in land disposing of manure.
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• The pyrolysis technology to be demonstrated in this project offers a means to reduce odor emissions, reduce the loading of nitrogen, phosphorus and pathogens to ground and surface water, reduce greenhouse emissions, reduce manure volume and mass, degrade pharmaceuticals contained in the manure, reduce the dependency of the livestock producer on the local land base, improve the quality of soils, and meet regulatory requirements with a cost-effective process.
o These potential advantages rely on the creation of a product from the slow pyrolysis process that has specific characteristics that can provide the above benefits safely, odorlessly, in a commercially sustainable manner and one that yields a “Carbon Neutral Footprint” in the process.
• Create an industrial park setting whereby we can demonstrate the biomass conversion process, create the end products of value and allow for economic growth by having tenants of the park use the renewable energy created by the process in their manufacturing or distribution activities.