Dean Foods Begins Development of Anaerobic Digester

Dean Foods has begun development of an anaerobic digester on the Big Sky Dairy farm near Gooding, Idaho, US.

According to the company, the anaerobic digester will capture animal waste from the farm’s approximately 4,700 dairy cows, reducing both odors and emissions of methane gas into the atmosphere.

The resulting captured methane will then be used to generate electricity. The project, which is expected to be operational by early 2009, will be owned and operated by a partnership between Dean Foods and AgPower Partners.

The company said that the Big Sky Dairy digester project is expected to have generation capacity of more than 1MWh of renewable green power, which will be sold into the local power grid and should provide enough renewable energy annually to power approximately 650 homes.

In addition, the digester will produce a sanitary fiber by-product that can be used as clean animal bedding or as organic soil enhancement. By reducing emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, the digester will also generate carbon credits and renewable energy credits.

Gregg Engles, chairman and CEO of Dean Foods, said: “Managing greenhouse gas emissions and animal waste is one of the dairy industry’s biggest challenges. We are proud to have partnered with AgPower Partners to bring this important and sustainable dairy industry solution to the market.”