- Title: ISRAEL: An Israeli company turns cow manure into green energy
- Date: 12th August 2007
- Summary: HUGE FLITTERING TANKS AT FACILITY'S COMPOUND GENERATORS WHICH ARE OPERATED BY METHANE GAS THAT WAS PRODUCED OUT OF COW'S MANURE, PRODUCING ELECTRICITY PLANT OPERATOR CHECKING GENERATORS CONTROL MONITOR SHOWING VARIOUS GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION OF ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION CONTROL MONITOR SHOWING HOW MUCH ELECTRICITY IS BEING PRODUCED WIDE OF DR. SHLOMO KIMHI, CHIEF ECOLOGIST OF TH
- Embargoed: 27th August 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Energy
- Reuters ID: LVA717158G797UOJGD462YXFRK9X
- Story Text: The plant, owned by a group of local farms and the Emek Hefer Regional Council, uses organic refuse, mainly cow manure from local dairy farms, to create electricity.
The facility, located in the in the heart of Israel's agricultural region of Emek Hefer is the first facility of its kind in Israel and its developers say the largest in the world.
"It's the world's most serious plant which deals with this issue.
It's a new attempt in the country, and now, from cow's manure, which its burial is very problematic, they made a plant that actually produces electricity. Its capacity should reach two megawatts," said Gideon Ezra, Israel's Minister of Environmental Protection speaking in Tel Aviv.
Two trucks, which continuously travel between the facility and 55 local dairy farms, dump an estimated 600 tonnes of animal waste at the facility every day.
Avraham Sulimani, CEO of the Hefer Valley Agro-Ecological Corporation, which operates the facility, says the trucks work around the clock to collect the manure from some 12,000 cows in the region to provide enough raw material for the continuous operation of the facility.
"All in all we have 55 agriculture farms.... They produce some 600 cubic metres of waste per day (about 600 tons), and 600 cubic metres of waste coming to the site produces 2 megawatts per hour of electricity,"
Sulimani said.
After the waste arrives at the facility, it is moved through a series of mixers to ensure the homogenous texture of the material. The waste is then pasteurised and transferred into tanks where it is digested in an anaerobic process and turns into methane gas.
The methane gas emitted from the tanks is then used as fuel to operate turbines, which generate the electricity. This electricity is then diverted to the country's electrical grid and sold for a profit to Israel's electrical company.
The idea to turn use cow waste into electricity came after a governmental reform forbidding dairy farmer from dumping their animal waste in open fields.
Minister Ezra also said that the state of Israel financed 25 percent of the ten million U.S. dollars needed for the project.
Sulimani says that while the original technology for the power plant was imported from Holland, the Israeli project is the first to deal with such a large amount of waste.
Dr. Shlomo Kimhi, Chief Ecologist at the Regional Environmental Centre in Sachnin says that besides the obvious advantage of energy production without using patrol or coal, the green power plant has managed to turn an environmental and ecological nuisance into an economic gold mine.
"The gas becomes a fuel substitute. The minerals which ... were eaten by the cows, in the cow manure, after digestion become very effective and readily available nutrient for plants, and the solid fraction of the digested manure can become a replacement for peat moss," Kimhi said.
In addition to selling electricity to Israel's electric company, the facility also produces and sells quality fertilizers and is being paid by farmers for clearing their waste, enabling the facility to be financially independent.
In a report published in May, Adam Teva V'Din, the Israel Union for Environmental Defence (IUED), said Israel's environment is headed towards disaster due to global warming and ongoing ecological neglect.
But in this issue, Israel is not alone: According to a U.N. report published in May, mankind is about to face major ecological changes that might result in severe natural disasters, if global warming is not contained.
If the project succeeds, it will lead to similar facilities in other regions in the Jewish state, and might serve a model for similar projects around the world - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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