Local Dairy Will Convert Cow Manure to Fuel for Vehicles

   Six years ago the DeRuyter and Son Dairy in Outlook became the first dairy in Central Washington to build an anaerobic digester to convert cow manure into biogas to produce energy. However the digester will lose money when revenues from power sales drop next year. That has led the dairy to switch gears, instead of producing energy the digester will produce fuel for vehicles. DeRuyter has partnered with Seattle's Promus Energy to develope digester-based renewable natural gas which can be used to power vehicles. Dan DeRuyter was a guest on "The Mike Bastinelli Show, " he said his dairy will be able to produce about 6 thousand gas equivalent gallons a day for vehicles. DeRuyter believes the digester based renewable natural gas can be delivered to vehicles for about 2 dollars a gallon, about half the price of gas or diesel. The vehicles would only require a converter to run the digester based natural gas.