A Maryland company has announced plans to build what could be the first large-scale facility on the Delmarva Peninsula for converting poultry manure and other organic waste into energy. Bioenergy DevCo, based in Columbia, has struck a 20-year deal with Perdue Farms to take over the composting operation Perdue has in Delaware.
The company said it plans to expand that and build an anaerobic digester on the same 220-acre site that will be able to treat 100,000 tons of manure and poultry processing byproducts a year.
“We believe the relationship between Perdue and BDC offers a large-scale opportunity to create a truly consistent source of clean, renewable natural gas in a sustainable way that will benefit the industry and the environment for years to come,” said Shawn Kreloff, Bioenergy’s chief executive officer, in a statement announcing the arrangement.
Anaerobic digestion uses microorganisms to break down organic material. The digester would extract methane, which could fuel vehicles equipped to burn it or be piped elsewhere for other uses, Kreloff said. Composting the byproducts of digestion would yield a fertilizer that’s easier and safer to store, ship and use than manure.
