Optional Energy Partners, Inc. is a new and vibrant Sustainable Energy Company that is located in Michigan and Florida.  We believe that communities need to take charge of their own energy needs and that we can help communities produce the "Sustainable Energy needed to become a Sustainable Community."  We have adopted that idea because we use the everyday, traditional living experiences of rural America, wastewater treatment plants, farms, and even natural settings and, without compromising future generations, create the sources of energy that will sustain us long into the future.  We will be a fully operational energy company before the end of 2010 and will be selling our brand of OEP Biofuels and other products to local concerns within that time frame.  We are engaging new partners in our endeavor every day.  If you would like to join us in this venture contact us and we'll let you know how you can participate.

    What makes OEP different than most alternative energy companies?  We like to refer to ourselves as a "Waste Remediation/Energy Company."  Our business model is not just about creating energy from waste, it is about reducing our carbon footprint to zero, producing new and innovative products, and helping others eliminate their negative impact on our environment.  We happen to believe that Global Warming is not a hoax.  We believe that the melting glaciers and ice shelves are not a coincidence of nature but rather are caused by man's neglect of his home, planet Earth.  We also believe that the phenomenon is reversible but that it will take the same type of aggressive development of technology that created the mess to get us out of the mess.

    We say that it will take the same type of aggressive technology but we do not think the same technology is the answer.  We do believe that a new type of thinking and a new way of looking at the world is needed.  That is why we have adopted the R. Buckminster Fuller quote "Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value."  Our goal is to find value where others have seen problems.  Our goal is not to make silk purses out of sow's ears but to make new attractive pork leather purses out of those sow's ears.

    Present day energy systems are terribly inefficient.  We allow so much energy to escape because we haven't taken the time or applied the technology to capturing that energy before it escapes.  If we generate electricity from coal, two-thirds of the energy in the coal escapes without being converted to electricity.  And then, we transport that electricity hundreds of miles to get to end users and another 5% is lost during transmission, so we end up only having about 32% of the energy that was in the coal getting to your home.  Where did the rest of that energy go?  Most of it dissipates into the atmosphere adding to our existing problems of global warming.

    What is OEP's vision that might change all of that?  We believe in local energy for local communities.  Rather than let all of that heat energy escape, let's capture that energy and use it for alternative purposes.  We can heat water for a variety of purposes.  We know about the laws of thermodynamics and we realize we cannot create the perfect heat engine.  We even know that we are always going to get less energy out of the system than we put in.  But we can do better; 22% to 35% is not good enough.

    As long as we have huge energy centers where most of our energy is produced, we will have tremendous difficulty becoming more efficient.  When a coal fired power plant makes electricity, the vast majority of the energy is released as heat.  Even if the power company sinks that heat energy into water, what will it use all of that hot water for?  On the other hand, if electricity is generated locally, a factory that generates its own electricity for operations can also capture the heat for other purposes.  One factory is generating its own electricity and using the captured heat to dry painted metal surfaces, a process they were buying electricity for in the past.  They paid for their system in 18 months and now it's all savings to the company's financial bottom line.

    We at OEP look forward to helping as many communities become energy independent as possible.  It can happen.  New technologies and new twists to old technologies are happening now.  These systems will allow us to increase our energy efficiency way beyond the 35% effciency we see today.  OEP sees a world that is 65% energy efficient or better within the next 5 years.  Come along with us.  It is a ride you will not regret.

 

FAIRGROVE FARMS

Almost 30 years ago John Pueschel, Dave Pueschel, and Larry Kelly, owners of Fairgrove Farms in Sturgis, Michigan, installed a system to generate electricity from cow manure.

Manure from the dairy barns and milking parlor is pumped to a digester. This "plug flow" digester was designed by Perennial Energy of West Plains, Missouri. The digester is in the form of a horizontal concrete tank, like a long swimming pool. It is covered so that the bio-gas from the digestion process is collected. This gas flows, without the aid of a booster blower, to a Caterpillar internal combustion engine. The engine drives an induction generator. The generator in turn produces about $3,200 worth of electricity per month.

An induction generator was selected although it is a little less efficient that other types of generators. Its advantage is it produces electricity that is automatically in phase with the power grid that supplies the farm. The result is that surplus electricity can be pumped into the grid (sold to the public utility) without the need for expensive switchgear.

Selecting a Caterpillar engine that would run on the low 600 BTU (mostly methane) biogas, without a need for filtration or pressure boosting, was a key element in minimizing the capital investment.

In 1999 Fairgrove Farms purchased a Vincent Model KP-10 Manure Separator. This machine is used to dewater the sludge from the digester. It is manufactured in Tampa, Florida.

This separator is an all-stainless screw press with only one moving part, the auger. This screw features three stages of compression with weld applied hardsurfacing in the high abrasion surfaces. A screw recently completed over 4,000 hours of service before refurbishment was required.

The screen of the press is made of perforated metal screen with 3/32" openings.

The sludge is pumped to the screw press at the rate of about 40 gpm. The press liquor goes to the wastewater pond, while the press cake (at 70% moisture) is sold as bedding to nearby dairy farms. This generates an additional $3,000 in monthly revenue.

Fairgrove Farms is a precursor and provides a model for OEP, as an example of effective Sustainable Energy. In addition to the Green Energy character of the Electricity produced by such a system, this type of facility offers the opportunity to deploy auxiliary technology and produce additional Sustinable Energy through the use of the effluent from the methane digestion as a medium for algae growth and then creating biodiesel and animal feed supplements from the algae.