Brazil's Small Farms Create Pipeline for Profits

 AJURICABA - Pedro Regelmeier has found a way to turn a liability – cow manure - into a profit stream on his 60-acre corn and livestock farm here in the hilly, primitive region of western Parana in Southern Brazil.

"This pipeline is going to help the environment," says Regelmeier, 52. "We used to have a lot of manure here."

The pipeline in question is a unique biogas 'condo' network that could dramatically boost small farm self sufficiency in energy and fertilizer, while improving water quality in Regelmeier's local watershed.

Regelmeier (left) and 33 small farm neighbors formed a cooperative that captures methane gas through anaerobic digesters built specifically for small farms. The gas moves through a a pipeline to a "thermoelectric microcenter" – plainly put, a 100-hp diesel engine that will convert it to power used for homes, vehicles and a community grain dryer.

Leave it to the Brazilians to come up with yet another way to convert natural resources into renewable energy. About half of the country's transport fuel is renewable ethanol from sugar cane.

Small farm power

Small farms are the norm in this region, which may surprise American farmers who think of Brazil as nothing but large scale grain operations. In fact, nearly 14 milliion people – 77% of the ag population - run small, family farms. These 4.1 million businesses produce 40% of the gross value of Brazilian agriculture and livestock farming, including 70% of the beans consumed by the country, along with 84% of the cassava, 58% of swine meat, 54% of dairy cattle, 49% of corn and 40% of poultry and eggs.

Biogas, or methane digesters, are mainstream in European agriculture thanks to heavy government incentives. They're just catching on in U.S. large-scale livestock. In Brazil, the idea of tying 34 small operations together is about as novel as it gets.

Regelmeier's modest income – he makes less than $10,000 a year – prevents him from spending much on farm upgrades. The farm got major financial assistance to make about $20,000 in investments for the digester, manure lagoon, new barn gutters and rainwater collection systems, to make sure water does not enter the digester. Waste automatically enters the digester from the barn; gas is captured in the top of the digester and processed biofertilizer moves to a lagoon, which is remarkably odor free. Every three months the material is sprayed on nearby corn fields.

Regelmeier hasn't been paid yet for his contributions, as the full system is not completely built (see photo, above) But the added income or credits should be significant. Project organizers believe each cooperator, on average, should make as much as $5,000 a year through the production of heat, electricity and vehicular energy, in addition to biofertilizers.

Farmers can trade their income for grain drying services at a new, brick-rimmed open air drying facility. "It's more profitable to dry the grain than take the cash," says Regelmeier's neighbor, Delcia Osterkamp, who operates a 42-acre pig and poultry farm and expects to be paid about $100 per megawatt hour. In all, the coop expects to produce 1,000 cubic meters of biogas per day.

Organizers hope the project provides a one-two punch: environmental preservation along with income generation for small farmers working together in an energy cooperative.

"These agroenergy condominums are a way for small farmers to protect resources and add value to manure, while helping the environment," says Cicero Bley, renewable energy adviser for Itaipu bi-national, one of the project sponsors and the company responsible for Itaipu dam, the world's largest hydroelectric plant at the nearby Parana river. "Usually a cooperative organizes around milk as a product. Here, we are organizing around biogas, which will reduce greenhouse gases. Methane is twenty times worse than carbon in the atmosphere." Regelmeier's manure lagoon is pictured above with his biodigester in background.

Protecting water

The cattle and pigs of the cooperative's family farms generate nearly 16,000 tons of waste annually. For the Candido Rondon municipality, and more important, the local watershed, concentrations of livestock became a concern. It's home to only 41,000 humans, but also 212,000 pigs, 3 million chickens and 42,000 cattle.

When submitted to anaerobic biodigestion, livestock waste from the Agri-energy cooperative is converted to approximately 266,000 cubic meters of biogas per year, which in turn can generate 445,000 kilowatt/hours (kWh) annually – enough energy for 150 homes. Based on Brazilian electricity prices, the sale of unused electricity can generate an annual revenue of approximately $33,000. The amount of bio-fertilizer produced can reach 9,500 cubic meters, saving the farmers $36,000 per year on fertilizer expenses.

"We're seeing a new phase where we look to the technical and economic viability of plants like this for small operations," concludes Bley. "Looking at how we can work with the sum of many small farmers, especially regarding energy, is so important. Climate changes demand the need to develop renewable energy sources."