State Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch announced that BIOFerm Energy Systems and Allen Farms have been awarded a grant to help fund a feasibility study for the "plug and play" digester EUCOlino. This project, made possible by a partnership with the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UW Oshkosh) and its Foundation, will be the first U.S. installation of this new technology. EUCOlino was developed to improve the on-site environmental and energy sustainability of small-herd family dairy farms. The system can be implemented at farms with a dairy herd size of 50 to 500; the average Wisconsin dairy farm has about 300 cows.
The plant will allow farms to treat manure on site, cutting transportation costs. The system will provide energy to offset the farm's consumption and the byproduct of the digestion process is a valuable fertilizer.
“It is exciting to see our state support a feasibility study that will examine what it takes to engrain renewable energy innovations we are helping establish in larger, on-and-off-campus digesters into a smaller farming operation like Allen Farms,” said Tom Sonnleitner, UW Oshkosh vice chancellor of administrative services. PD
—From BIOFerm Energy Systems news release
