Brian Roebke photo
Representatives of Dynamic Renewables and area farms celebrated the completion of BC Organics, a new anaerobic digester in the town of Wrightstown last week, by cutting the ribbon to the facility.
By Brian Roebke
Editor
Representatives of Dynamic Renewables, Miron Construction, Live Oak Bank, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, among others, celebrated the completion of BC Organics, a new anaerobic digester in the town of Wrightstown last week.
The project, owned by Dynamic Renewables, consists of 16 digesters that produce renewable natural gas, fiber bedding, and clean water on Mill Road in Greenleaf. BC Organics serves 11 multi-generational, local farms in the dairy market, both large and small.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony held inside a building with more than 100 people, Founder & Chief Executive Officer Duane Toenges said there were a lot of people in the room he is thankful for.
“No. 1, if it wouldn’t have been for the farmers, this plant wouldn’t be here,” he said. “If you step back one step further, Brown County is who initiated this project.”
Toenges noted there was a grant put out to build such a system that Dynamic designed, went to the state, and got another two grants and “the rest is history.”
A long process began with the first location in the town of Holland, with the town board eventually voting in 2019 to deny a CUP before Dynamic went to the town of Wrightstown, which approved the CUP. Much of the engineering work was done during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He thanked the farmers for standing by the project since it was proposed in 2017. “These contracts were written two, three years ago,” Toenges said. “This project took five years and it wouldn’t have happened without a ton of people in here.”
He noted Live Oak Bank loaned them a lot of money and there are several other major investors.
“We took on one of the largest, most complex systems ever been built to process dairy manure,” Toenges said. “This is our passion. It’s our passion as a group because we can change agriculture and food waste and clean water is the reason that we started this. We’ll do more with clean water.”
He said there are five other small plants under construction.
“You take the most complex system in the whole wide world that’s ever been designed and build it first,” Toenges noted. “That never would have happened without all these people.”
He thanked the Town of Wrightstown Board for “saving” them from their enemies and it was truly appreciated.
“This project was ready to die because we couldn’t get one little lousy township permit,” he said.
This project supports USDA’s Strategic Goals one and five; Combat Climate Change to Support America’s Working Lands, Natural Resources and Expand Opportunities for Economic Development to Improve Quality of Life in Rural and Tribal Communities.
“The USDA, under the Biden-Harris Administration, supports innovative biobased projects that spur economic development, create new jobs and provide new markets for farm commodities in rural America,” said USDA Rural Development State Director for Wisconsin Julie Lassa. “The loan guarantee program being utilized by BC Organics achieves this while also helping to protect the environment.”
USDA Rural Development’s Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program provided a $104 million loan guarantee to construct the first-of-its-kind commercial biorefinery. The total project cost is upwards of $140 million. The objective of the program is to support the development of new and emerging technologies to produce advanced biofuels (renewable natural gas), renewable chemicals and biobased products.
When the town approved the Conditional Use Permit the company employed four people but they now have more than 40 employees.
The facility will process more than 900,000 gallons of manure each day. It will produce more than 135 tons of fiber bedding each day. More than 400,000 gallons of clean water is produced each day. The facility will produce 1,630 MMBtu’s of renewable natural gas each day. The equivalent of 11,000 gallons of diesel fuel will be produced each day in the form of compressed natural gas.
Production is still ramping up, with full production expected to occur in 2023.