New York State invests $2M for Genesee Biogas plant

Genesee Biogas LLC has received a $2 million state grant to build a manufacturing plant in Batavia’s Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.

The company is 100 percent owned by CH4 Biogas of Atlantic Beach, Fla., which operates a Wyoming Count plant that converts organic waste into energy. The new plant will be located in the agribusiness industrial park where Alpina Foods and Muller Quaker Diary yogurt plants are based.

CH4 Biogas vice president Lauren Toretta said that the company applied for the grant over the summer, and that the $2 million will be used to build the project. The grant was part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Funding Application Program, which granted millions to Genesee County businesses.

“We’re at the beginning of the process,” she said, “We’re working closely with New York Energy Research and Development Authority. The first step is getting the award, then we’ll work out the milestones.”

Toretta said the initial design of the plant is complete, and it will be located on about three to four acres on a seven-acre parcel of land in the 200-acre Agri-Park.

CH4 Biogas converts organic waste such as cow manure and acid whey from the Alpina Foods yogurt plant, and restaurant grease trap waste into electricity, which is sold to New York independent system operators.

This year, CH4’s Wyoming facility will sell about 10,000-megawatt hours of energy, enough to power about 1,000 homes. It leases land from Synergy LLC, a milk production partnership that has more than 2,000 cows. Besides energy, CH4 Biogas makes liquid fertilizer and a material that the farm uses as bedding.

Toretta said that earlier this year, the company completed construction on a Napoleon, Ohio facility that will start providing power to a Campbell’s Soup plant there later this week.