Perdue partners with Fibrowatt in poultry litter energy project

Perdue AgriBusiness in partnership with Fibrowatt has submitted a proposal to the state of Maryland in response to the State’s Clean Bay Power Request for Proposal.

The Fibrowatt/Perdue AgriBusiness proposal calls for a combined heat and power biomass boiler operation that will provide 10 megawatts of electricity to the state as well as up to 70,000 pounds per hour of steam to the Perdue AgriBusiness complex. The renewable fuel source will be a combination of poultry litter, layer hen manure, wood chips and other locally sourced biomass.

The proposed project is another step forward in Perdue’s commitment to environmental responsibility through its renewable/alternative energy initiatives, including solar power installations, biomass energy partnerships and a litter-to-energy initiative. Perdue AgriBusiness currently uses fossil fuel to generate steam, which provides heat during various steps of soybean processing and poultry feed manufacturing. For the past two years a team has conducted a thorough review of available technologies to convert poultry litter to energy, meeting with more than 45 companies and evaluating five technology categories in the course of its review.

In 2001 Perdue AgriBusiness established a subsidiary, Perdue AgriRecycle, which converts poultry litter to a pasteurized, pelletized organic fertilizer. This provides poultry growers with an important management alternative for their litter. Since its establishment, Perdue AgriRecycle has shipped approximately 12 million pounds of nitrogen and 7.5 million pounds of phosphorous (P2O5) out of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Through Perdue AgriRecycle, Perdue AgriBusiness is the largest buyer of poultry litter in Maryland.

Fibrowatt brings unique and extensive experience in the combustion of poultry litter to the project. Fibrowatt’s management team has been developing and operating poultry-litter-fueled power plants for a total of 21 years. The company originated in the United Kingdom with the original poultry-powered plant consisting of a small boiler fueled on a test basis with poultry litter to provide heat to a local distillery. Following this first design, a 13 megawatt poultry-litter-fueled power plant in Eye, UK (the world’s first) was constructed, and two other subsequent plants (14 megawatt and 39 megawatt) were constructed before the team came to the United States.

Related websites:
Perdue AgriBusiness
Fibrowatt