The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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September 1, 2009

Biogas plant coming to Welcome

By Brian Ojanpa

WELCOME — The tiny town of Welcome is hoping to reap big benefits from barnyard manure.

Gaylord-based bioenergy development company Midwest Biogas plans to build a plant near the 700-resident community that turns hog and chicken waste into energy for electricity and natural gas.

Midwest Biogas President Nick Nelson said the bioenergy park would be the first of several the company plans to build throughout the upper Midwest.

“We need to crawl before we can walk,” Nelson said of the start-up venture that would be the first plant of its type in Minnesota.

He said the Martin County plant would create about 30 jobs at the outset and 50 at full production.

Welcome Mayor H. Bocky Borchardt said the plant would be the town’s largest employer, but suggested it’s premature to label it a done deal.

“Everything is in the talking stages at this point,” he said.

Nelson is more convinced.

“I’m better than 99 percent sure. I’d put my life on it that this is going to happen.”

Nelson said he’s looking at three land parcels at Welcome, which was chosen because key infrastructure elements — rail line, nearby grain-processing facilities, an abundance of area animal feeding units — are already in place.

Under a best-case scenario, Nelson said construction would start next spring. He claims the facility in seven years would be generating $70 million annually in area agricultural and trucking revenues.

The plant would produce renewable energy by using anaerobic digestion and combustion technology.

Manure and organic waste from hydroponic greenhouses and corn stover (cornstalk residue left in fields after harvest) could be used to produce renewable gases.

Nelson said it’s not a new technology, it’s just novel to the United States.

“In Europe they’ve been doing this for over 30 years. There’s a tremendous amount of push from the (U.S) government to do this,” he said.

Nelson was an accounting manager for Michael Foods in Gaylord before embarking on his new career.

Midwest Biogas will use Schmack BioEnergy as its anaerobic digestion technology supplier and is working to secure U.S. Department of Agriculture loan guarantees for the projects.

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