BE co-gen energy plant comes online in Storey Co.

An energy co-generation project in Storey County started up in January is now fully operational, says EP

Minerals, LLC. The subsidiary of EaglePicher Corporation of Dearborn, Mich., says the $2 million project will result in a more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly plant.

The price tag includes land, construction, materials and labor, says a company spokeswoman, as well as engineering, equipment and installation. The firm declined to disclose the payback period.

The Clark plant came online in 1945, and with regular maintenance, should last indefinitely, says EP. The facility employs about 60.

EP's Clark facility mines and processes diatomaceous earth, a biomineral used in such products as oil absorbents, soil amendments, animal feed additives, organic insecticides and performance additives for paint and plastics.

However, that manufacturing process consumes large amounts of oil, natural gas and electricity to convert raw ore into a wide variety of finished products. The co-generation project will allow EP to produce nearly all of its own electricity from clean-burning natural gas, and then use the hot gasses leaving the electrical generating turbine to dry and process the DE. The result, it says, will reduce the carbon footprint of the

Clark facility by about 40 percent.

"Once we have proven this cogeneration technology at the Clark facility, we plan to duplicate it at our largest facility in Lovelock," said Dave Keselica, president of EP Minerals. The company hopes to begin installation there next year.