An international biogas company visited Rock County Tuesday and expressed interest in something local livestock producers have a lot of – manure.
Nature Energy operates 13 biogas plants in Denmark and in three years plans to build 15 more in North America.
Four Nature Energy representatives met with county commissioners Tuesday, explaining their business model and needs from a host community.
Attending the commissioners’ meeting were also members of the Luverne City Council, Rock County Economic Development, Luverne Economic Development and city of Luverne.
“We are reaching out to you to see if we have local support,” said Jesper Ascanius Kjersgaard Nielsen, vice president of business development. “We are a company that is coming to your community to ask for permission to be a good neighbor.”
Nature Energy began in 1979 as a municipally owned natural gas company in Denmark in 1979. Now the company extracts methane from cattle manure and other organic wastes to produce biogas. The biogas is sold as a green alternative to natural gas.
Also extracted in the anaerobic process is food-grade carbon dioxide. The manure minus the gases is returned to the livestock producer as fertilizer.
“Basically, we borrow the manure and bring it back a better product,” Nielsen said.
Luverne and Rock County matches many of the location criteria Nature Energy is looking for in the construction of a biogas facility.
The biomass plant would be a $100 million construction project resulting in 12 to 16 jobs.
The company needs at least 27 acres, access to manure from 15,000 dairy cows within a 25-mile radius, a connection to a natural gas pipeline, and sufficient access to electricity and water.
Nature Energy is also looking to locate a biogas plant in Pipestone.
Three plant locations have been already been chosen in North America. The sites are in Benson and Wilson in Minnesota and in Roberts, Wisconsin.
Nature Energy focuses on taking manure from small- and medium-sized dairy farms for the biogas process. However, it is looking at manure from swine and beef on the tour to Rock County.
Smell from the process is eliminated through the use of charcoal filters and a stringent cleaning process.
“When it’s degassed the smell goes away,” Nielsen said.
Attending Tuesday’s meeting with Nielsen were Nature Energy agronomist Matthew Berulylette, vice president of on-farm business development Bob Lefebvre, and lead business developer Tore Junkuhn Dehli.
“We want to be the good neighbor,” Dehli said. “We don’t want to be the one to build something and leave. Our plans are to be here for 40 years and be a good neighbor for 40 years. We don’t want to build something and everything not be all right.”
A decision as to Luverne’s suitability as a location would take about a year to complete.