http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com/projects/stewardship/turkey120402.ht ml
Dec. 4, 2002 Turkey plant finds high-tech pollution solution Carthage company will turn poultry waste into products instead of effluent. By Mike Penprase News-Leader Carthage � There appears to be a new solution to leftover turkey: Turn it into 40-weight motor oil. Until now, the only thing processors could do with the byproducts of butchering turkeys � the guts, feathers, grease and other waste � was to turn it into poultry feed. That, in turn, left its own byproduct � effluent that could pollute southwest Missouri waterways. Partners have high hopes for the tangle of tanks, hoppers and pipes being built on the Spring River near the ConAgra Butterball turkey plant in industrial downtown Carthage. After it turns the turkey waste into oil � as well as diesel fuel, fatty acids for use in cosmetics, fertilizer and carbon black � the only thing left over will be clean water. The Thermal Depolymerization Plant, or TDP, is scheduled to start up in January, said Paul Halberstadt of Renewable Environmental Resources, a joint venture of ConAgra and thermal depolymerization developer Changing World Technology. Halberstadt, vice president of technical services, makes regular runs from Michigan to Missouri to oversee plant construction. A pilot plant has been operating at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Business Center for three years, testing what kinds of agricultural wastes, known as foodstocks, can be processed, Halberstadt said. The Carthage plant will be the first to operate commercially. �The predominant thing we�re trying to get out of this process is the oil,� RES president P.J. Samson said. Estimates are the plant will produce 115,000 tons of the oil and diesel each year. �The idea for thermal depolymerization has been around for a long time, but we believe our process has perfected it,� Samson said. �It�s no longer laboratory benchtop,� he said. At full operation, the Carthage plant will process 200 tons of material from the Con-Agra plant and several other businesses that produce waste cooking grease on a round-the-clock, 365-day schedule, Halberstadt said. And, even better, it�s feasible the plants could be used to process phosphorus-laden poultry litter as well, Halberstadt said. He said that while the Carthage plant would have to be tuned to take large amounts of the litter, RES has had inquiries from other poultry plants about using the process. How it works The plant will mimic how oil is produced naturally by heat and pressure over eons, Halberstadt said. The difference is the Carthage plant will do the same thing in hours by moving a slurry of wastes and water through a series of tanks that use a variety of heat and pressure combinations to break the organics down, he said. In the first stage, material is subjected to 750 pounds per square inch of pressure at 500 degrees Fahrenheit, while the second stage uses pressure of 25 to 50 psi at 1,000 degrees. Unlike other methods that create air emissions or other byproducts, the TDP is a closed system, he said. Another advantage is the plant doesn�t depend on catalysts to break down the wastes, eliminating the need to use chemicals that can be expensive, hazardous or that have to be recovered, Halberstadt said. While methane and other gases that are produced are used to power the plant, all the end products except the purified water can be sold, he said. �I think what we�re doing is to provide an option that doesn�t exist,� he said. Issue of economics Sen. Christopher Bond helped obtain $5 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the $15 million project. James Stoffer, interim chemistry department head at the University of Missouri-Rolla, studied the technology and said the test for the plant will be whether it produces as much material as billed. But he added that while the plant may be a �tough go� economically, it�s worth the investment because of what it promises for the environment. �If it breaks even or even makes money, it saves the environment. It does have the potential. The science is there.� Missouri Department of Natural Resources director Steve Mahfood agrees. �The issue has always been the economics,� he said. �It�s never been the technology, it�s never been because it�s a good idea. The point is, we now have reached that crossover point.� Bruce Martin, regional director of the state Department of Natural Resources, is hopeful economics will work for the plant. �I�m excited about the possibility we have a plant that�s able to take poultry waste and turn it into useful products, he said. �If this plant in Carthage is success, and I hope it is, there will be other plants. If the market is there for these products, the businessmen are going to find a way to get it done.� _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
