Milltown Biomass-to-Energy Power Station

Milltown Biomass-to-Energy Generating Station
Location	near Milltown, Indiana
Status	Active
Commission date	Unit 1: 2009
Owner(s)	Liberty Green Renewables
Power station information
Primary fuel	Biomass
Power generation information
Maximum capacity	28 MWe

The Milltown Biomass-to-Energy Power Station is a 28 MW Biomass to electricity power station under construction near Milltown, Indiana in Crawford County. It is being developed by Liberty Green Renewables (LGR), based in Georgetown, IN.

This plant will utilize woody biomass material from a number of local forest product industrial sources, including residues from logging, land clearing activities, pallet manufacturing, furniture and cabinet manufacturing, sawmills, tree trimming and storm damage. This can be beneficial in the event of damaging ice storms like the January 2009 ice storm that hit Southern Indiana, and southern neighbor Kentucky, dropping thousands of limbs and wooden debris.

Liberty Green has since amended its permit to include additional sources such as scrap wood from demolition but will be prohibited by permit from any wood contaminated with lead (from paint) or pressure-treatments (such as arsenic).

According to the company, the facility will utilize a fluidized bed boiler technology to enable utilization of a wide variety of woody biomass materials in an efficient, environmentally friendly manner. ^[1]

The construction of this plant is currently a source of intense local controversy. Many local residents oppose the plant. In Liberty Green Renewables' first filing with the state, the company proposed discharging more than 170,000 gallons of water a day into the Blue River. Terry Naulty of Liberty Green Renewables told Fox 41 News the citizen response has prompted a major change in the operation plan. Naulty said, "We're going to discharge that water on to our own property and grow energy crops and use it for irrigation water."

The area under discussion is karst geology, and it is unsure what impact the proposed discharge of large volumes of waste water will have. "Karst" means cave, and the area underlying the proposed power plant is honeycombed with caves, fractures, and underground streams. Water dumped into "sinkholes" - openings into the underground cave system - typically migrates quickly though the rock through underground channels and fractures until it reaches the level of groundwater, working its way into streams, wells, and rivers. Due to the complex structure of a karst system, dye tests are unreliable. Water may become trapped in a cavern, to be released at a later time as the level of groundwater changes. The proposed site is adjacent to the Blue River which is a state Wild and Scenic River. Many local residents depend on the ground water for their drinking water, and the river and caves are habitat for state and federally endangered species such as the Hellbender salamander and the Indiana Cave Bat.

There is general debate as to how "clean" biomass power generation is. There seems to be agreement that replacing part of the coal in a coal-fired power plant with biomass results in a reduction of pollutants, as woody biomass does not create the volumes of sulfur when burned that coal does. When wood decomposes, the carbon sequestered during growth is released slowly over time as CO₂ and methane and nutrients are returned to the soil. Methane is a global warming gas that is 21 times more reactive than CO₂. When wood and slash are removed for burning, the CO₂ is released all at once and no methane is released resulting in a net reduction in emissions of global warming gases as compared to natural decay and no nutrients are returned to the soil, resulting in long-term degradation to the forest. Standing dead trees provide important habitat for many species of wildlife.

References & Resources

• Courier-Journal Newspaper article regarding permit application

• Blue River Project Nature Conservancy's page on the Blue River

• Karstwaters.org educational links Website with good information about karst topology

• [1] Fox 41 interview with LGR

• Watershed Report Indiana State Watershed Restoration Action Report for the Blue-Sinking Watershed

• Liberty Green Renewables The developer of the plant.

• [2]

1. ^ http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977557143