Biomass fuel plant might be built in Bird Island (MN)

[jpak]

http://www.wctrib.com/articles/index.cfm?id=20214§ion=homepage&forumcomm_check_return&freebie_check&CFID=34674752&CFTOKEN=46517859&jsessionid=883092fc7cca4d3e582c

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Many European countries also have well established biofuel industries. They expect biomass fuel to play a bigger role in their future than wind power, according to Russell Koopman of Bird Island.

He’s hoping to see biomass fuel play a big role in the future of Renville County as well.
Robert Ryan of Bird Island holds a handful of biomass fuel pellets in this undated file photo. Sunrise Agra Fuels produces the pellets for use in wood pellet and corn burning heating stoves. Ryan and his business partner, Russell Koopman, are proposing building a biomass pellet facility in Bird Island.

Koopman and Bob Ryan, founders of Sunrise Agra Fuels, told the Renville County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday that they are proposing to develop a biomass pellet facility in Bird Island. They estimate the production plant will cost between $2 million to $2.5 million.

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Renville County agriculture can provide much of the biomass to produce the fuel pellets, according to Ryan and Koopman. Soybean straw, cull Navy beans, ground sunflower hulls and shelled corn, and wood are among ingredients that can be compressed into fuel pellets.

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