With the start of a new Duke project, one hog’s waste is a university’s treasure.
After two years of development, the University, in collaboration with Duke Energy, broke ground Monday on a pilot system to manage hog waste in a way that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants and provide a source of renewable energy, according to a Duke news release Monday.
The waste-management prototype—expected to be completed and fully running by February 2011—is being built at Loyd Ray Farms, about 115 miles west of Raleigh in Boonville, N.C. The farm, which was originally used for tobacco and beans, has 9,000 hogs. The prototype in Boonville will act as a model for other farms when implementing renewable energy structures.
“Duke Energy is excited to learn more about using hog waste as a renewable fuel,” Emily Felt, director of Renewable Strategy and Compliance at the North Carolina-based utility, said in the release. “Building a better understanding of this technology allows us to determine how we can bring this type of renewable energy to our customers in a cost-effective way and meet our requirements under North Carolina’s renewable energy portfolio standard.”
The system, which costs $1.08 million, will have several functions, one of which is to capture methane gas from the waste and then use it to generate electricity. The methane collected from the device will be able to produce 512 to 639 megawatt-hours of clean energy each year.
By capturing methane gas from hog waste, Duke will receive carbon offset credits and Duke Energy will get renewable energy credits.
“Duke University has a goal of being carbon-neutral by 2024,” said Tatjana Vujic, director of the University’s Carbon Offsets Initiative, in the release. “We need to account for those greenhouse gas emissions we can’t reduce by preventing or reducing emissions elsewhere... and we want those [carbon] offsets to come from projects that make a difference to our local and regional environment and economy.”
In addition to harvesting renewable energy, the infrastructure will also handle liquid waste better by altering treatment and then either recycling it as flush water for the hog houses or eventually for crop irrigation, thus forming a closed circuit.
Other members of this partnership include the United States Department of Agriculture and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Lagoon Conversion Program, which both provided grant funding for the project.
As compensation for letting the University and Duke energy use his facilities, Loyd Bryant, owner of the farm, will own the system at no cost after 10 years and will save on his electricity bill due to the new system.
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