FARMVILLE — Before green energy technology advances made way for biomass plants, the disposal of poultry poop led to olfactory and environmental hazards.

“The reason poultry litter is such a problem is the farmers put the wet litter on the ground as fertilizer,” said Power Resource Group CEO Rich Deming. “It is awesome for the nitrogen and the plants love that, but the problem is the potassium and phosphorus. The plants can’t fix that, so all that goes in the waterways when it rains.”

For nearly 18 months, truckloads of dried poultry litter — manure and wood shavings with less than 30% moisture — have been delivered to PRG’s plant in Farmville. The door to the fuel hall is opened mere minutes for the unloading and the air intake for the boilers in an adjacent building causes negative air pressure, so the odor from the plant is limited.

The litter is slowly fed into giant boilers where it creates high-pressure steam to turn turbines and create electricity, which helps adjacent industries. In Farmville, that industry is a sweet potato farm, but in Wilson, it will help the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

Director of Water Resources Barry Parks said when the biomass plant on Stantonsburg Road is operational, the facility will produce electrical energy as well as hot water energy that the wastewater plant can harness. He said the hot water energy will reduce treatment costs and improve efficiencies.

“We will use the excess energy to evaporate reuse water (up to 250,000 gallons per day) that would otherwise be counted as part of our discharge to Contentnea Creek,” Parks said in a statement. “Reducing this discharge saves the city money by delaying the need to expand the treatment facility or reduce the permitted flow by reducing our overall discharge by as much as 2% of our current permitted limit. This additional treatment capacity is very expensive, typically costing $10 to $14 per gallon in current capital costs to construct.”

Deming said locating near an industry that has a problem to solve, such as the wastewater plant, is critical to the biomass facility’s success. 

“We’re excited. For renewable energy certificates, these types of plants are a great win-win-win,” he said. “It is diverting pollution from the ground, offsetting coal use for energy and creating good green-collar jobs.”

Once the litter is burned, it’s transformed into nutrient-rich ash for the fertilizer industry.

“Once it goes through the plant, that nitrogen is gone through the chemical process, but all the potassium and phosphorus ends up in the ash, and we sell that back to the fertilizer industry because plants need those but don’t need so much, and this allows them to dose it right for them,” Deming said. “It is kind of nice in that it diverts the pollution, but nothing goes to a landfill. Everything is used.”

PRG expects the project to be funded in the coming months with the two boilers specially built for Wilson’s plant. Boiler construction takes 12 months, but once they’re delivered, the plant buildings will be constructed around the boilers. Production is expected to begin sometime in 2022.

While the Farmville facility was PRG’s first of its kind and includes three boilers, Wilson is expected to have two boilers. Deming said he hopes to include a rail spur in Wilson, which would reduce the usual traffic of roughly 10 enclosed trucks of litter a day.

“We are happy that PRG has chosen to partner with us,” Parks said. “They will produce a large investment of $20 million and 10 good-paying jobs in Wilson.”