USDA approves $5M grant for Kansas anaerobic digester

In Kansas, the USDA has approved a $5 million grant for Western Plains Energy’s planned anaerobic digester in Oakley that will be co-located alongside a cattle feedlot. It will provide 89% of the energy required for the company’s 50 million gallon ethanol plant that currently uses fossil fuel to produce the required process heat. Construction of the biogas plant is expected in August and will become fully operational in 2013.