Farm looks to fuel cells to help with the chores

A Connecticut dairy farm uses an abundance of raw materials to fuel its operation. Pictured here is Freund's Farm Market

By Environmental News Network staff

Esther and Eugene Freund taught their children well.

The Freunds, who took up dairy farming in East Canaan, Connecticut, in the 1950s, were conservationists long before the eco-movement took hold in recent years.

In the interest of saving energy and resources, the couple carefully insulated their house, installed energy-efficient light bulbs and used clotheslines instead of an electric dryer.

In the summer, Esther even moved her newer, automatic-defrost freezer out of the farmhouse to make way for her old icebox, which required less electricity to run in warmer weather.

"My mom was a Connecticut Yankee," Matt Freund said of his late mother, who died in 1985. "My parents did the obvious things, the little things to avoid being wasteful."

Matt and his brother, Ben, now run Freund Farm, where they continue their parents' conservationist way of life.

In 1997, the brothers installed an anaerobic plug flow digester, an elaborate mechanism that uses microorganisms to extract methane from more than 4,000 pounds of manure produced daily by 200 milk cows and 150 calves. The digester also helps manage the solids and liquids from the manure in an ecologically sound way.

For the past three years, gas captured by the digester has fueled a hot water boiler that, in turn, heats the Freunds' farmhouse and offices as well as the digester.

Today, the Freunds are preparing to take an even bigger step into the world of green technology.

Through a partnership with fuel cell manufacturer Tor Energy Company, the Freunds will install a fuel-cell system engineered to provide enough electricity and heat to run the farm without help from the grid.

Dubbed the Isis Biocell Project after the Egyptian goddess of agriculture, the installation is intended to demonstrate how fuel-cell technology can benefit the agricultural industry.

"I'm excited," said Matt Freund. "We try very hard to be environmentally sound and we have done some things we are very proud of. This is just another piece in the puzzle. Our main focus is a clean environment and the fuel cell just continues on that process."

Fuel-cell energy generated from methane will provide power for the Freund farm

"I want to see sustainable agriculture where we are taking renewable resources and using them," said Chadd Lewis, vice president at Tor. "Our grandchildren would hang their heads in disbelief knowing their ancestors wasted fossil fuel to generate electricity."

Tor will be responsible for the engineering and installation of a solid-oxide fuel cell on the Freunds' property. The fuel cell uses ceramic-based electrodes and burns hotter than other versions using platinum or polymers. Tor believes that its cell is the only one on the market that can run on methane.

The fuel cell will run on methane produced by the digester, providing about 25 kilowatts of electricity. The energy will be used to power the farm facilities, and any excess will be uploaded into the grid, according to Lewis.

Two other byproducts of the fuel-cell electricity generation - hot water vapor and carbon dioxide - will also help run the farm more efficiently.

The hot water vapor will be used to heat the buildings, eliminating the need for the hot water boiler.

The carbon dioxide will be pumped into greenhouses filled with vegetables and bedding plants, where the gas will revert to oxygen through photosynthesis.

Tor hopes the demonstration project at Freund Farm will serve as a model for agriculture of the future, boosting interest in fuels cells and the clean, efficient energy they offer.

"The Freund Farm demonstration project is important because it will be a model for sustainable waste and energy management," said Rich Madrak, president of Tor. "The ability to use opportunity fuels such as biogas, land fill gas, coal gas or even basic infrastructure fuels such as natural gas is the key to commercial viability of the fuel cell."

The Freunds will receive a percentage of any Tor fuel-cell sales generated by the demonstration project. But the brothers aren't particularly interested in the money.

"Our main interest is environmental," said Matt. "We work in the environment every day of our lives and we want to keep it clean for future generations."

Tor expects to complete the installation within the next two years.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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