Work on Intrepid's Idaho manure-methane processing plant to start in March

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Feb. 9 -- Dairy manure will be used as feedstock for a natural gas processing plant being planned at Rupert, Ida., the state's first such facility.

The owner, renewable energy company Intrepid Technology & Resources Inc. (ITR), Idaho Falls, said design is well under way on the plant, which will use a proprietary anaerobic digestion process when first production begins in late July. Construction is scheduled to begin Mar. 30, following spring ground thaw.

The 28 MMcf/year facility is being designed to process the energy equivalent of 335,000 gal/year of propane production, ITR said. About half of the gas will be used at the dairy and the balance sold to current propane users.

ITR said it plans additional digester facilities with dairy and feedlot operators in the western US.