Clay Norrbom Tells Us All about Their Groundbreaking Wind + Biofuels Project in Albert Lea, MN

August 05, 2021

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(Clean Energy Economy MN) ... For the past three years, maybe longer, we’ve been working with REG on a corporate level to identify where there are opportunities to build onsite renewable energy projects at their biodiesel production facilities. We are finding the best ways to lower their carbon intensity in a meaningful way at these plants. Through this process, we identified the Albert Lea plant as the best place to start because we could do near-site wind energy to help with their carbon scoring. Carbon scoring is an intense look at the whole lifecycle of the fuel, so every percentage of carbon you can remove from the process has a direct impact on profitability.

Q: TELL US ABOUT THE WIND TURBINE THAT WAS BUILT FOR REG.
A: We completed work in December on a single, General Electric 2.5 MW wind turbine that produces roughly 10,000 MW hours a year. These turbines are typically deployed in large wind farms and we are one of the few customers who deploy them one or two at a time. On a net basis, this wind turbine meets the plant’s annual energy usage. The turbine will save approximately 68,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the first 10 years, displacing predominantly fossil fuel-based electricity. This is the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from 168 million miles driven by an average passenger vehicle.

Q: WHAT MAKES THIS PROJECT UNIQUE?
A: Because of the strict calculations about the carbon impact from biofuels, the wind turbine has to be directly connected to the plant, offsetting energy usage with renewable energy. The plant cannot simply purchase renewable energy credits, the offset must be direct, which makes the project more of a challenge.

The wind turbine is the first of its kind in the US where a biodiesel facility is being supplied renewable electricity directly from a wind turbine. The project further reduces the REG Albert Lea facility’s carbon intensity which is in line with REG’s goal to drive to a more sustainable future.

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This is the second project with a biofuel company where we have helped them directly connect renewables. It is hard to do these direct-connected projects and companies need us to keep working out how to get closer to zero net-carbon and they have a way to monetize that and make it worth the effort to get there. We’ve always been about distributed generation but the industry is driving us to go lower and lower and if we do it right, the amplifier effect is huge. The marrying of our work on renewables and the biofuels plants needs for local renewables is exciting – it hasn’t always been that way. READ MORE

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POET Biorefining-Glenville fined $52,805 for air quality violations at Albert Lea facility (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency)

Excerpt from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency: According to a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) enforcement investigation, POET Biorefining-Glenville LLC violated several air permit conditions between 2018 and 2023 at its ethanol production facility in Albert Lea, Minn. Violations included emitting more particulate matter and volatile organic compounds than allowed by permit over the course of five years.

An MPCA staff review of company records confirmed violations including:

Failure to conduct daily emissions observations on several pieces of equipment during the second half of 2021 and first half of 2022 reporting periods.
Failure to maintain floating roof legs for two ethanol tanks resulting in excess volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions for a nearly five-year period.
Failed performance stack tests for a cooling baghouse in April 2022 with emission limits exceeded for particulate matter (PM) by 16%, and for small particulate matter (PM10) and very small particulate matter (PM2.5) by 84%.
Failed performance stack tests for cooling systems in November 2022 with emission limits exceeded for PM10 and PM2.5 by 10%, and VOCs by 13%.
Failure to prevent fugitive emissions of particulate matter from a cooling cyclone system in February 2023.

In addition to paying the $52,805 civil penalty, POET Biorefining has completed a series of corrective actions including:

Submitting a permit amendment to increase emission limits for VOCs, PM, PM10 and PM2.5 for its cooling systems and plans to maintain the limits.
Submitting an updated operation and maintenance plan including a list of all control equipment; a plan ensuring control equipment operates while pollution emission units are operating; a plan ensuring pressure ranges are maintained for equipment; and a plan to maintain recordkeeping including employee training that demonstrates implementation for all facility daily inspections for control equipment.
Submitting revised semiannual reports between 2018 and 2022 that document various violations, missed or deviated readings, and corrective actions.
Submitting a plan to maintain floating roof legs for ethanol tanks in the future.
Submitting an updated fugitive emissions control plan for visible and fugitive emissions for several pieces of equipment.
Submitting revised emission inventory reports for the years of 2018 through 2021 for tank excess emissions.
Submitting a plan ensuring that daily recordkeeping is conducted in the future.

MPCA rules and regulations are designed to protect human health and the environment by limiting pollution emissions and discharges from facilities. When companies do not fully comply with regulatory requirements, the resulting pollution can be harmful to people and the environment. READ MORE