PORT TREVORTON — With the installation of a $200,000 boiler at Windview Farm in Union Township, Snyder County, Morrill “Mac” Curtis hopes not only to reduce his operating costs, but also to help the environment.
By burning the 500 tons of manure produced annually by his turkey grow-out operation rather than spreading it on the fields of his 70-acre farm, nearly 20 tons of phosphorus will be eliminated from the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In fact, if promising tests are successful, the phosphorus residue could be marketed as a cattle feed additive, Curtis said. He also hopes to save $30,000 in annual fuel costs.
“I’m trying to be as environmentally responsible as possible,” said Curtis, a stocky man with a neat mustache and calloused hands. “I also want to make my farm more productive.”
Curtis spoke with reporters, state officials and Snyder County Conservation District officials on Monday during a demonstration firing of the new unit.
He explained that the boiler, installed by Bio Fuel Boiler Technologies, of Beavertown, will use a heat exchanger system with heated water that will be pumped under the floor of his turkey barns to heat them. Unlike heat generated by propane furnaces, the radiant heat from the floor is dry heat and will reduce the production of ammonia in the manure. That should result in healthier turkeys, he said, and since the manure and litter on the floor of the barns will be drier, it will produce more heat in the furnace.
Kevin Kehres, of Bio Fuel Boiler Technologies, said the boiler unit will automatically feed the manure and litter onto a moving firebed inside the boiler, burning about 600 pounds of litter per hour at maximum feed. A blower connected to several plenums beneath the firebed provides the proper oxygen mixture for through combustion, resulting in firebox temperatures between 1,400 and 1,600 degrees. Because of the high operating temperature, very little odor or noxious gases emanate from the smokestack.
The boiler is designed to burn a variety of fuels, so if the manure supply runs low, wood chips, waste wood, coal or even switch grass can be used as a fuel.
“Anything that can go up the conveyor into the firebox will work,” Kehres said.
The ash left after combustion is a fine powder composed of nearly pure phosphorus, Kehres said, and Pennsylvania State University agricultural scientists are looking into its use as a feed supplement or fertilizer.
Curtis said if the phosphorus can be used, it will “complete the circle of use.”
Denise F. Bechdel, an environmental consultant with Bucknell University’s Small Business Development Center, assisted Curtis in preparing the grant application for the project, believed to be the first such operation in the state.
She said the cost of the boiler normally would take about seven years to pay off, but thanks to federal and state grants — including a $61,356 grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Energy Harvest program — his investment will begin to pay off in less than two years.
“This is a good use of taxpayer dollars,” said Jon R. Vernam, director of Bucknell’s SBDC.
Curtis said everyone he contacted about the project was helpful and supportive. He researched for several months and visited a number of operation in other states. If the system is successful, he said, other farmers will take advantage of his pioneering efforts.
“What we learn here will be passed on,” he said. “I think we made the right choices.”
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Agriculture: Farmer pins hopes on boiler
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