Supposed alternatives to Rose Energy not even costed
11 May 2012
TUV Leader Jim Allister has established by Assembly Questions to DARD that the supposed alternative to the Rose Energy project of a poultry fuelled gasification plant has not even been costed.
Just weeks ago DARD declared a poultry fuelled gasification plant and exporting of poultry litter as alternatives. But in reply to Mr Allister the DARD Minister has conceded the gasification project has not been costed at all and that exporting 200kt of poultry litter pa to GB would cost between £4 and £6 million. The department has admitted this would be uneconomic.
The North Antrim MLA has also unearthed that DARD knows of only one gasification plant in the world fuelled by poultry litter and that is a private operation on a 800,000 poultry farm in West Virginia, USA, which is modest in comparison to the total Northern Ireland poultry flocks. Moreover, it has had operational difficulties and only heats the on-farm poultry houses.
The only commercial scale gasification plants known to the department are in Slovenia, Croatia and Norway, but these are fuelled not by poultry litter but by municipal waste.
Commenting Jim Allister said:-
“These replies demonstrate just how cack-handed and bereft of credibility are the department’s supposed alternatives to the Rose Energy project. Not only have they no idea how much a poultry litter gasification plant would cost, but it turns out there is not even one such commercial plant operating successfully anywhere in the world! As for exporting poultry litter that patently is financial madness.
“So, here we have a department peddling as supposedly serious alternatives to Rose Energy, projects which are untested, unviable and unaffordable. It’s time DARD, under Sinn Fein, abandoned its ideological opposition to Rose Energy and rowed in behind a project which can rescue our poultry industry from its present litter impasse.”
Here are Mr Allister’s Questions and the Answers:
Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to detail the respective costings of the two options in the technical review of poultry litter management and disposal which was carried out by her Department and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute.
Answer:
The technical review of poultry litter management and disposal recommended that consideration should be given by the industry to the development of a proto-type poultry litter fuelled gasification plant and that options to reduce the transport cost of poultry litter for export, should be further investigated.
The review examined the potential of a range of alternative technologies as a means of processing poultry litter. Costs of the alternative technologies were not considered as part of this technical review.
In addition to the technologies examined, the review also identified that exporting poultry litter to Britain for land spreading as an organic fertiliser offers some potential. However, this option would incur significant and ongoing costs due to high transport costs and the low financial value of poultry litter as a fertiliser.
Estimated annual costs for this option are between £4 and £6 million, based on export of 200kt of poultry litter per annum. Consequently, the review recommended that options to reduce the transport cost of poultry litter for export, for example use of baling, and the logistics of shipping poultry litter for export should be further investigated.
Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to list any examples of successful and viable poultry litter fuelled gasification plants.
Answer:
In the poultry sector there is one known on-farm gasification plant on a large broiler chicken farm (800thousand birds/year) in West Virginia, USA. A key justification for the plant was that it could utilise the heat from the gasification process for heating the broiler houses, especially in the winter. This plant has been in place for over 2 years but initial operational problems were reported.
The most successful examples of the use of gasification at a commercial scale are a number of recently opened gasification plants used to treat municipal solid waste in Northern Europe, with gasification plants in Krsko and Celje in Slovenia, Sisak in Croatia and Sarpsborg in Norway. These are close to buildings and can link to district heating systems and so have a high heat recovery potential.
The technical review of poultry litter management and disposal options carried out by my Department and the AgriFood & Biosciences Institute recommend that consideration should be given by the industry to developing a proto-type poultry litter fuelled gasification plant.
