Posted September 11, 2009

The construction contract for the Bioenergy Project for the City of Beaver Dam/Kraft Foods was awarded to CD Smith Construction, Inc. of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin for a cost of $16.88 million. Construction is scheduled to begin in September 2009.

The Beaver Dam Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) Upgrade and Bioenergy Project is a unique public/private partnership intended to improve environmental quality, create jobs, produce bioenergy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and provide long term sustainability of the precious natural resources in the State of Wisconsin.

In 2007 the City hired ATI to prepare a long range wastewater facilities plan to meet the treatment needs of its’ residents while maintaining the high quality of the Beaver Dam River, which plays an important social and environmental role in the region.  Additionally, the City wanted to provide adequate treatment capacity for existing and future growth of industries in the City to maintain the long term economic vitality of the community.

Kraft Foods is one of the largest employers in the area, and the largest industrial wastewater discharger in the City.  Kraft has been in Beaver Dam since 1922, and produces over 178 million pounds Philadelphia Brand cream cheese each year. Kraft’s normal process wastewater is currently discharged into the City’s sewer system, and represents about one third of the wasteload at the Beaver Dam WWTF.   

Since the City was in the process of planning an upgrade of the Beaver Dam WWTF, the City and Kraft worked cooperatively on evaluating and pilot testing a pretreatment system at the Beaver Dam WWTF to treat high strength wastes and process wastewater from Kraft.  The effluent from the pretreatment system would discharge to the upgraded facilities at the Beaver Dam WWTF.   The wasteload from the pretreatment system would be less than just the process wastewater from Kraft if it continued to be discharged to directly to the City.  This reduced the size of the facilities that needed to be upgraded at the Beaver Dam treatment plant.
 
Biogas from the anaerobic pretreatment system will be used to power two combined heat and power (CHP) engine-generators that will produce approximately 800 kW of bioenergy that will be sold to Alliant Energy.  This will provide the City with a revenue stream of over $500,000 per year and will provide power for approximately 800 homes in the City.  The waste heat from the CHP engines will be used for heating the pretreatment system, anaerobic sludge digesters and buildings at the Beaver Dam WWTF, making the plant energy self sufficient.

The Beaver Dam WWTF and Bioenergy Project is designed to treat a wasteload from a population equivalent of over 190,000 people.  The overall project cost is approximately $20 million and is anticipated to be funded through the Wisconsin DNR with an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus grant of 50%, or up to $10 million, and a low interest Clean Water Fund loan for the remaining 50% of the project cost.  Other funding sources could include a grant from Wisconsin Focus on Energy, which already provided a grant for the pilot plant study.  In order to qualify for ARRA funding, ATI designed this project within 2 months.