Benson, Minn.-A newly formed LLC expects to start this spring producing fertilizer from the ash generated by burning turkey litter as boiler fuel for an innovative 50-megawatt power plant. Both plants are completing construction in a large industrial park on the edge of town, and Randy Tersteec, president of North American Fertilizer, told Green Markets that limited production will begin in April and grow to 80,000 tons per year. The power plant being built by Fibrominn LLC will be the first of its kind in the U.S., although parent company Fibrowatt has three already in operation in the United Kingdom. It will burn 700,000 tons of turkey litter per year, which is available in such abundance in west/central Minnesota that it’s actually a problem for growers. Tersteec said the ash will be transported via conveyor to the North American plant just southwest of Fibrominn, where it will undergo conditioning with additional moisture, be put in storage for a while, and then ground and screened for uniformity. The combustion process will eliminate the nitrogen, explained Tersteec, but uniquely the final product will be an 0-17-13 fertilizer plus micronutrients such as sulfur and zinc, which he believes will be ideal for row crop farmers. “If they’re spreading four tons of litter per acre now,” he claimed, “they’ll get the same nutrients in 400 pounds of our product.” Tersteec reported that initially the fertilizer will be marketed through the dealer network already in place. “For the startup phase we are just looking at the agriculture market, and our intent is not to sell directly to farmers,” he noted, “but residential and landscape sales will be looked at in the future. And if customers are willing to take it in non-granulated form, it would cost substantially less than other commercial fertilizers.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain