WOOLWICH BIO-EN

Last evening at 7 pm. in the Elmira library, the Woolwich Bio-En Citizens Liason Committee (CLC) took place. It may have set a record for duration which actually is a good thing. It was over within twenty minutes as Chair Earl Brubacher updated the committee on their current operating status. Feedstocks are coming in on a daily basis and power is being sucessfully generated and added to the grid. There have been no new complaints regarding either noise or odours and in fact the only two attributable complaints dealt with noise from a fan and a minor change has reduced that problem. Their neighbour, the pet food plant, is experiencing odour problems but to date the community seem aware that it is not Bio-En.

Earl suggested that they were running at about 25-30% capacity and that was strictly due to the incoming quantities of feedstocks. It will take time for local generators of these food feedstocks to understand exactly how flexible and able Bio-En are to accomodate different varieties. For example they can and have handled everything from hotdogs in packages to dry soup mix and canned goods. They have a machine which removes the packaging allowing the contents to go into the digester. The excess gas to be used for vehicle fuel plans are still a couple of years away. I had asked a question about power failures and apparently their backup generater will provide power for their flare and bio filters. Hence they could operate on a reduced basis if necessary for a short while.

The next meeting will be at the library, 7 pm. on Tuesday October 7, 2014.