ELLISBURG — A Rochester area company plans to build a $20 million anaerobic digester facility that will turn manure from a local dairy farm into renewable natural gas.
Steven Wilkinson, renewable project manager for RNG LNG Inc., Victor, Ontario County, said the company plans to construct the two-million-gallon digester on three acres owned by Birch Creek Dairy Farm on County Route 79.
Plans call for trucking the livestock manure from the farm a short distance away from the digester site, he said. The digester will then generate methane gas and then go through a cleaning process before renewable energy will be transported by compressed natural gas trailers to a pipeline in Ontario County.
It would be the first digester facility in Jefferson County, and one of the first in the north country, said Jefferson County Agricultural Coordinator Jay M. Matteson. He hadn’t heard that digesters were capable of that process of producing natural gas until hearing about this project.
“It sounds very interesting,” he said. “It sounds like a great project.”
Matteson recalled that another farm in Ellisburg had operated a digester to create mainly electricity for the farm several years ago, but it’s no longer operating.
A similar RNG facility that operates two digesters exists in Lowville that also produces natural gas. There are about 20 RNG facilities operating in the state.
The company hopes to begin construction this year, Wilkinson said. He’s been working on the Birch Creek project for about six years.
First developed in Europe, these types of digesters can be found all over the world. However, it’s only been about a decade since digesters have been able to turn the methane gas into natural gas, Wilkinson said.
The “sealed steel digester” will use a “bio-gas collection/processing/handling equipment,” according to a town of Ellisburg application for the project.
Once the manure arrives, the digester warms it up to 100 degrees, then initiates “bugs” to eat the methane gas before it goes through a cleaning system and subsequently converted into natural gas and transported to an injection site in Ontario County, Wilkinson explained. The natural gas produced by the digester would generate energy for 500 homes.
RNG LNG, a development firm, has a 20-year lease for the 3-acre site from the Birch Creek farm and is putting together the project for South Jersey Industries, an energy services holding company that would own the facility. Berkshire Hathaway would transport the natural gas to the pipeline in Ontario County.
Three full-time employees would man the digester, while other company workers would monitor the site remotely, Wilkinson said.
The Ellisburg site also will include buildings, flare and other associated access roads, utility services and above-ground and underground piping, according to the town application.
Last fall, the Ellisburg Board of Appeals approved a special-use permit and site plan for the project, zoning officer Cindy Shaw said. Last week, the county planning board reviewed the project and sent it back for municipal review.