JC-Biomethane uses Legacy fabric building to process food waste at unique biogas plant.
Mike Crummy
Since its inception nearly a decade ago, Essential Consulting Oregon, LLC (EC Oregon) has built up an impressive r茅sum茅 when it comes to the planning and implementation of U.S. biogas projects. In that time period, the company has provided dozens of feasibility studies, performed GIS mapping in several states, and provided services for the development of four full-scale biogas plants.
The most recent of these biogas plants, the $16 million JC-Biomethane, LLC project, had been in the company鈥檚 sights for more than five years. Opened in mid-2013, the new plant in Junction City, OR, is anaerobically digesting organic material to generate methane-rich biogas, which then fuels a generator for the production of electricity. This project carried particular importance for its founders, since they happen to live in the area. But beyond the personal connection to the region, there were other local factors that made the site an excellent location to demonstrate the potential for similar facilities across the country. 鈥淭he community here is very focused on sustainability, landfill diversion, renewable energy,鈥� said Dean Foor, project engineer for EC Oregon and chief executive officer of JC-Biomethane. 鈥淏etween federal grants, state tax credits and a $2 million contribution from the Energy Trust of Oregon, we had a good groundwork here for developing this type of project.鈥�
While still in the development phase, the project did encounter one early wrinkle that dictated a modification to the original facility plans. The expiration of a tax incentive tied to pre-consumer food waste forced the plant to turn to post-consumer food waste as its feedstock source. This twist of fate ultimately gave JC-Biomethane the distinction of being the largest U.S. biogas plant focused exclusively on post-consumer food waste. 鈥淭he field of waste management as a whole seemed reluctant to embrace the technology of processing food waste into biogas,鈥� said Foor. 鈥淭he technology needed a push to make it happen and show its potential.鈥�
The biggest adjustment from the change in feedstock was to the design of the receiving building. Instead of handling clean organics, JC-Biomethane would need a separator to remove contaminants from the food waste. The company also wanted to account for odor control and greater storage capacity requirements. In short, the receiving building on site would need to be much larger.
A Different Kind of Building Design
At the recommendation of one of its consultants, Evergreen Engineering, Inc.,JC-Biomethane turned to Legacy Building Solutions (South Haven, MN) to provide a tension fabric building to receive waste for the plant. In contrast to traditional tension fabric structures, Legacy buildings feature a rigid frame design that uses structural steel I-beams, which allows the manufacturer to easily customize to the exact length, width and height needed. 鈥淓ssentially we modeled up the dimensions we would need to accommodate trucks making deliveries and loaders operating inside of the building,鈥� said Foor. 鈥淲e also needed space to house different equipment arrangements and hold the amount of inbound material we anticipated. The height needed for truck tipping was another consideration.鈥�
The end result supplied by Legacy was a 120-foot by 160-foot structure with a polyethylene roof that peaks at a height of 47 feet. The building is outfitted with Rytec high-speed fabric doors for truck entry, and also includes a two-story office complex within the envelope of the larger structure. 鈥淲e have about 3,600 square feet of office space inside the building,鈥� said Foor. 鈥淲e did some retrofitting in that area of the structure late in the process as well. Our architect worked with Legacy on a modification to provide an exposure from our offices to the western view. The whole engineering phase with Legacy was excellent. They were very responsive to our ideas and turned things around very quickly. Even the installation was fast鈥攖he whole building was erected in about seven days.鈥�
Additional Benefits
Legacy鈥檚 structural steel frame design allowed JC-Biomethane to mount equipment from the I-beams as well. The receiving building includes a special odor control system, a feature that isn鈥檛 legally required by federal or state regulations, but that Foor and others determined would be advantageous both for plant workers and neighboring businesses and residents. The odor control system is comprised of two large hoods established over receiving areas where the food waste resides for extended periods of time. A vacuum over the area pulls in the atmospheric gases emitting from the waste and moves the contaminated air through ducting to an ozone system just outside the building. A series of 132 UV lamps create ozone, which reacts with any volatile odors and neutralizes them. 鈥淲e鈥檙e basically pooling multiple exchanges of air per hour through our building and using an ozone reaction to control odor,鈥� said Foor. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a unique application. This technology is used at biogas plants in Europe, but we don鈥檛 know of any other biogas plant in North America that has used ozone for odor treatment. We think that鈥檚 a first.鈥�
Though the fabric building was chosen primarily for its customizability and overall efficiency for the application at hand, JC-Biomethane immediately started noticing additional environmental and cost benefits from the structure. 鈥淭he fabric roof allows a lot of natural light into the building, which is a big advantage on the operations floor, since it reduces our need for artificial lighting inside,鈥� said Foor. 鈥淚t provides significant sheltering from rain, wind and cold. Even though we didn鈥檛 have it insulated, it鈥檚 still noticeably more comfortable inside during the winter. We thought it might be hot to work in during the summer, but the structure actually provides more of a shading and cooling effect.鈥�
Processing Food Waste
The operation officially kicked off when JC-Biomethane began processing food waste in July 2013. The facility receives most of its post-consumer food waste from commercial sources in the Portland metropolitan area and throughout the Willamette Valley. Currently, trucks are bringing in about 1,500 tons of food waste per month, enough to produce 550 cubic meters of biogas an hour.
After a bioseparator breaks down organic substrate and removes hard contaminants, the cleaned substrate is pumped outside the receiving building into a homogenization tank, where it remains for several days. The material then is moved into an oxygen-free, continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR), where heated waste anaerobically digests for 30 days. It is here where bacteria convert the organic waste into biogas, which rises to the top of the tank.
The processed digestate material from the CSTR then gravity overflows to a post-digester tank, which collects the biogas in its inflatable gas holder. Biogas is then piped into a cleaning tower where bacteria remove gas contaminants. Remaining solids are converted to a sweet-smelling fiber compost byproduct, while odorless liquid digestate goes into a large holding tank to be sold as liquid fertilizer. Meanwhile, the biogas moves through underground pipes for water removal and final cleaning via activated carbon.
At this stage, the biogas is now ready to fuel the plant鈥檚 16-cylinder, 2,000-horsepower MWM co-generation engine. Combustion of the gas in this combined heat and power unit turns a generator that converts mechanical energy into electricity. The engine has a 1.55 megawatt capacity, and is expected to produce 12,250 megawatt hours of electricity on an annual basis, enough to power approximately half the homes in neighboring Junction City. The generator鈥檚 electricity is sold to Portland General Electric as part of a 20-year purchase agreement. JC-Biomethane began selling its electricity in October 2013鈥攖hree months after the first loads of food waste entered its doors.
According to Foor, JC-Biomethane already expects to double its food waste intake within six to nine months to 3,000 tons per month. This quantity would match the existing facility鈥檚 maximum capacity, and, as a result, there is already some consideration for expansion.
As far as the prospects for developing additional biogas plants, Foor acknowledges there are some challenges to replicating the JC-Biomethane model. 鈥淚n our existing plant, it is all electrical production,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e secured our rates with the electric utility at a time when they were considerably better than they are today. The future of biogas plants is more likely hinged to us being able to sell energy into the vehicle fuel market. We can take our methane-rich biogas, clean it with carbon dioxide, and compress it so it鈥檚 a direct replacement for compressed natural gas. The vehicle fuel market is probably the most ideal use for this energy source anyway, so that鈥檚 where our attention is focused as we look at future facilities.鈥�
Structures for Future Plants
Don鈥檛 be surprised if EC Oregon looks to Legacy Building Solutions again to provide fabric structures for future plants. 鈥淭he Legacy building has performed at or above expectations in many ways,鈥� said Foor. 鈥淎nd on top of its functionality within our process, it offers environmentally friendly features in its own right. It鈥檚 a great system for our application.鈥�
Legacy Building Solutions specializes in the innovative design, engineering and construction or fabric-covered buildings. For more information, visit
听
Mike Crummy is a technical writer with The Promersberger Company in Fargo, ND.
听