06/05/06 Expanding one, building a second digester

With preparations underway for construction near Caldwell on Idaho's third methane digester its time to look at the other two projects. Intrepid Technologies of Idaho Falls is building its second anaerobic digester at the West Point Dairy near Wendell and that concrete and steel construction work will continue into the winter. Work is also underway near Rupert at the Whitesides Dairy expansion of a two tank digester. FRAZEE "We actually ordered the digester tanks, they should arrive in the August time frame but we'll expand up to a total of ten digester tanks at that dairy site. That will handle the entire existing herd as well as the dairy expansion going on." Intrepid's Brad Frazee says the second part of the Whiteside project involves the installation of gas conditioning equipment that was due to arrive over the weekend. FRAZEE "The equipment that cleans up our gas to a pipeline quality stage." Like anything new, Frazee says they're learning more about the digester, pushing it to its limits and making improvements. FRAZEE "We have made some adjustment in the feed preparation and the solids handling on the back end but that's all incorporated in the design and the expansion of the facility." There are only 100 anaerobic digesters in the US today but in Europe there are more than 25 hundred of them. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott