Contact: Phil Hearn
Looking for Energy - Mississippi State University researchers John Plodinec, left, and Kristina Umfress are helping the state's Band of Choctaws determine if mixtures of chicken litter and sawdust can be turned into an alternative energy source while helping the environment. Plodinec is director of the university's Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory and Umfress, of Fulton, a 2002 graduate of MSU's chemical engineering program, is a research associate for DIAL. (MSU photo by Fred Faulk)
Mississippi State University scientists and the state's Band of Choctaws are combining research and entrepreneurial skills to determine if mixtures of chicken litter and sawdust can be turned into reservation jobs while helping the environment.
Responding to a U.S. Department of Energy initiative to develop energy sources on tribal lands, the university's Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory is working with the Choctaws to test whether poultry litter and wood waste can become a source of electricity and/or commercial chemicals.
Established in 1980, the MSU laboratory--referred to as DIAL--is a research unit in the James Worth Bagley College of Engineering. "The tribe seeks to further diversify into technology-based industries that will provide higher-paying job opportunities for tribal members," said John Hendrix, economic developer for the Mississippi Choctaws. "Using renewable resources to generate electricity makes sound environmental sense. This study will determine if it also makes economic sense."
The Choctaws now operate 25 separate business divisions in the United States and Mexico, and rank as the third largest private employer in Mississippi. Seven counties under study include Scott, Leake, Neshoba, Jones, Newton, Winston and Kemper.
"Mississippi is a great producer of chickens and in the seven-county area around the main holdings of the Choctaws (near Philadelphia), there are about 320 million broilers," explained DIAL director John Plodinec, noting agricultural runoff from dumping the waste has led to mounting environmental concerns.
"Wood waste has a similar (environmental) problem," he added, explaining furniture-manufacturing processes and some other uses generate decomposing waste that can produce greenhouse gases and noxious chemicals.
Plodinec and research associate Kristina Umfress of Fulton, a 2002 graduate of MSU's chemical engineering program, also observed that collections of wood waste-- which includes forest residue as well as sawdust--pose a fire threat during dry seasons.
On the plus side, however, Plodinec said the energy content of litter samples tested by DIAL ranged from 3,100 to 5,200 BTU per pound of dry litter and the energy content of wood waste is at least twice that amount. So the Mississippi Technology Alliance, recognizing the potential for alternative energy sources, asked DIAL to help the Choctaws take advantage of the natural resources that surround them.
"They (the Choctaws) are looking at this as a business opportunity. Is there some way, potentially, they can get higher-paying technology jobs for the tribe?" said Plodinec, describing Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin as a "superb businessman."
With Umfress leading the project, DIAL scouted available technologies and made some preliminary evaluations, ultimately focusing on two possible approaches for in-depth study. The MSU researchers hope to finalize their recommendations in July.
Umfress said an initial "distributed generation approach" would utilize a small gasifier developed by Community Power Corp. of Littleton, Colo., to generate electricity directly from mixtures of wood waste and poultry litter. The DIAL team is working with the MTA and CPC to determine if the units can be manufactured in Mississippi, preferably by the Choctaws.
"A gasifier converts organic materials into gas rather than burning it," said Plodinec, noting the units would be sited at poultry houses around the state. "Then, the gas can be moved somewhere else and burned cleanly. You can generate relatively small but significant amounts of electricity right there for the person who needs it."
A second, more centralized approach, said the researchers, would utilize mobile units to produce commercial chemicals through extruder liquefaction technology developed by Waste Technology Transfer Inc. of Tucson, Ariz.
Plodinec said the units would render poultry litter, or mixtures of poultry litter and wood waste, to a concentrated slurry very similar to crude oil. This stream then would be taken to a central facility and separated into fractions for production of commercial chemicals, which could be used as pharmaceutical feedstocks or for other purposes.
"The Choctaws would take the mobile units out to a chicken house or to a woodshop, then bring the crude oil-like material back to a central facility on tribal land for refining," said Plodinec. "But they want to see if the units can be manufactured inexpensively enough to be cost effective for the customers."
Hendrix said the research project represents "a good model of Mississippians combining our talents and resources to promote economic development.
"We assembled a team that combines both the public and private sector with the state's strategic vision to develop alternative energy sources through the MTA, MSU providing the cutting-edge research and the tribe as the private sector business investor," he said.