By JON RUHLEN

The Hutchinson News

HEALY -- As the debate about coal energy takes center stage during this year's state legislative session, a new Lane County company is touting a greener alternative to coal.

Officials with Sunflower Electric Cooperative and the Healy-based Prairie Fire BioEnergy Cooperative announced this weekend they've signed an agreement to study the potential for burning biomass at Sunflower's Holcomb coal-fired plant.

Sunflower will begin tests to determine the feasibility of using Prairie Fire's product in their coal burners, said Kyle Nelson, vice president of power production and engineering for Hays-based Sunflower.

The first tests will determine the flame characteristics of the product. Once those tests are complete, a small sample will be fed into a scaled-down test boiler to determine compatibility with the company's existing coal-fired plants.

Nelson said the biomass product is a potential local fuel source that also alleviates environmental concerns associated with coal.

"If you're burning a biomass, even though it's a carbon-based fuel, the biomass is essentially treated as a zero-carbon fuel," Nelson said. "In theory, burning a biomass should not cause an overall increase in the CO2 level because burning wood chips or crop residue is burning carbon that's already in the carbon cycle."

The biomass from Prairie Fire essentially is crop stubble or prairie grasses ground up into a fine consistency.

"Our goal is to use agri-fibers that do not compete with grain acreage or cattle feed," said Prairie Fire president Brad Applegarth. The product would come from what Applegarth described as agriculture waste streams -- crop stubble, grasses, road ditch hay or even dedicated feedstock.

"There's plenty of waste streams in western Kansas," Applegarth said.

The final product is a finely ground white powder, similar to coal in its heat properties. It would be burned in essentially the same manner as coal, although, Nelson said it probably couldn't be mixed directly with coal because of the different characteristics of the materials.

If the tests are successful and Sunflower determines it economically is feasible, Prairie Fire could land its first industrial client.

Prairie Fire was born more than a year ago from discussions by Healy residents regarding the future of the town.

"We decided we needed to do something from within our own group," Applegarth said. "It took us about nine months to get to this point."

The concept of burning biosolids is not new. Prairie Fire adapted technology already in use by Show Me Energy Cooperative in Centerview, Mo. Nelson said other efforts to use agriculture waste are in place in several Gulf states and internationally.

Prairie Fire also hopes to market a residential fuel pellet source in time for next winter.

"Our goal is to take locally grown biomass material and use it to replace energy sources that would normally use natural gas or coal," Applegarth said.

Nelson said he hopes efforts such as this show people Sunflower is dedicated to fuel sources other than coal. However, new innovations also must be cost-effective.

"The one thing we do when we look at any project is we make sure the economics make sense for the system," Nelson said.