Source: Washington Department of Commerce, May 26, 2020
Competitive process identifies four innovative projects to advance anaerobic digesters at dairies in eastern and western Washington.
OLYMPIA, WA – The Washington State Department of Commerce today announced $970,000 in grants from the Clean Energy Fund (CEF) under the Dairy Digester Enhancement Program. Four proposed projects will address improved energy efficiency in operations and the marketing of biogas, nutrients, fiber and other co-products of the digesters.
“Energy resilience is crucial to strengthening rural communities,” said Commerce Director Lisa Brown. “These new anaerobic digester projects, supported through the Washington Clean Energy Fund, have multiple potential benefits to the dairy industry, local residents and the environment.”
All of the grants for the proposed projects must be matched at least dollar-for-dollar with other sources of non-state funding.
DeRuyter Dairies (Outlook, Yakima County): $164,145 to convert the DeRuyter Dairies from flush to flush flume to greatly reduce the volume of water mixed with manure and improve digester capacity, efficiency, and biogas production, as well as recovery of nutrients and fiber.
Edaleen Cow Power (Lynden, Whatcom County): $300,000 to acquire new equipment (hydrogen sulfide scrubber) and infrastructure (new manure pipeline) at Edaleen Cow Power (ECP) to complete a new long-term offtake agreement and associated business plan. This plan can provide ECP and potentially other existing and new projects with higher-value power purchase agreements when the power for used for electric vehicles.
FPE Renewables (Mt. Vernon, Skagit County): $300,000 to purchase and install a 10-20 wet ton/hour food residuals de-packaging system at a permitted material recovery and recycling facility for production and delivery of a new slurry feedstock stream for the FPE Renewables on-farm anaerobic digester, as well as other partnering digesters in Western Washington.
Organix, Inc. (Outlook, Yakima County): $205,855 for a comprehensive pilot study to investigate the potential benefits of processing anaerobic digester effluent using the BioFiltro BIDA System. This system is anticipated to improve air quality by mitigating noxious odors and reducing greenhouse gases, and to clean the water for reuse in the dairy flush system.
All of these competitive grant awards are conditional upon execution of final project agreements and performance-based contracts with Commerce. The projects, selected from among five applicants requesting a total of $1,385,724, represent a wide geographical range.
Commerce coordinated closely with bioenergy researchers and developers, the state Departments of Ecology and Agriculture, State Conservation Commission, and dairy industry organizations to design this grant program.