Storms Farm digester recognized by American Council of Engineering Companies.
The Storms Farm anaerobic digester installation, “Swine Farm Biogas Renewable Energy Project,” earned a National Recognition Award as part of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) (www.acec.org/) 2015 Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on April 22, in the District of Columbia. The National Recognition Award is a prestigious distinction honoring projects that demonstrate exceptional achievement in engineering.
Project engineer, Withers & Ravenel, Cary, North Carolina; anaerobic digester designer, DVO Inc., Chilton Wisconsin; project developer, AgPower Partners LLC (www.agpowergroup.com), Broomfield, Colorado; and Storms Farm, Bladenboro, North Carolina, collaborated on the project, constructing the largest swine biogas renewable facility in North Carolina.
“We are honored to receive the ACEC National Recognition Award,” says Sam Ravenel, Withers & Ravenel Inc. vice president. “The completed project is a waste-to-energy facility that works, benefits the environment — and, most importantly, can be replicated.”
DVO’s two-stage mixed plug flow anaerobic digestion technology at Storms Farm allows the farm to be much less reliant on lagoons, provides benefits for both waste handling concerns and energy production and greatly reduces odor and greenhouse gas emissions, according to the company.
“The digester is great for the environment, the swine industry, the state and our farm. We couldn’t be more pleased with our system,” says Billy Storms, owner of Storms Farm.
Withers & Ravenel is a full-service civil and environmental consulting engineering firm offering a broad range of quality professional services. Our staff is dedicated to providing innovative and cost-effective engineering solutions..
Storms Farm, owned by Billy Storms, is North Carolina’s largest renewable energy facility using swine waste. The 600-acre farm has 23 barns, nearly 30,000 hogs and 444,000 chickens.
The Storms Hog Power anaerobic digester and renewable energy generating system, in tandem with an enhanced animal waste extraction and collection system that uses scrapers instead of flush water to remove manure from the houses, greatly reduces the negative environmental impacts of the current lagoon and spray field manure management systems, while profitably generating renewable energy and other valuable byproducts.
Manure collected daily from nearly 30,000 hogs, formerly treated in open air lagoons, mixed with off-site agricultural wastes which were previously either land applied or destined for a landfill, is biologically decomposed in an oxygen-free, 1.2 million gallon reinforced concrete vessel. The bacteria in the digester metabolically break down the organic waste streams and generate energy-rich biogas, while destroying nearly all of the pathogens and odor. The biogas is combusted in an engine/generator, sending enough clean renewable electricity to the local utility to offset the electricity consumption of nearly 300 average size homes in the area.
North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. purchases all of the electricity under a long-term contract. This revenue, combined with tipping fees for processing the off-site agricultural waste, the sale of the carbon credits and Renewable Energy Certificates, and the sale of other valuable byproducts, support the sustained operation and maintenance of the facility.
The anaerobic digester was designed by DVO. The site layout, building and feedstock delivery systems were designed by Withers & Ravenel. AgPower Partners oversaw the entire project, procuring all construction, financing, power off-take, utility interconnection and renewable energy attribute contracts.