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USDA TO TEST FERTILIZER SYSTEM

Eldora, IA  – January 13, 2006

Local businessman's technology turns waste into product

<>DANA SANCHEZHerald Staff Writer<>
BRADENTON - After seven years of research and development, local businessman Loran Balvanz and his innovative waste-to-fertilizer technology caught the attention of the federal government.
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Balvanz's company, Global Resource Recovery Organization, turns animal waste into a value-added end product - fertilizer - using a cyclonic air drying system called the Tempest.

The company has just entered into a formal agreement with Farm Pilot Project Coordination Inc. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to form a new joint-venture company.

<>The new company will combine private and public resources in an effort to test Balvanz's technology in the field.  <>

Funded by an initial outlay of $500,000 from the federal government, the first beneficiaries of the pilot project will be farmers who want to convert their swine, cattle, chicken and turkey excrement into fertilizer for crops, Balvanz said. Water-laden sludge, feathers, paper pulp and animal waste are spun at 700 mph in a hot steel drum. The end result is light-weight fertilizer.  <>

Balvanz first turned a profit selling his Tempest drying system in 2004 from offices in Bradenton and Eldora, Iowa. The system, which weighs 75 to 125 tons, is portable and was originally used to treat sludge in Ireland. Cost of the Tempest system starts at several hundred thousand dollars.  <>

Up to 95 percent of the volume is spun out of waste products, Balvanz said. "So instead of a truckload, you've got a five-gallon bucket to deal with."

Farm Pilot Project Coordination Inc., a Tampa-based nonprofit designated by Congress to help implement technology that addresses the growing problems associated with animal feeding operations, is one of the partners in the new venture. The other is the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service.

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William Boyd, head of the animal-waste utilization team at the USDA office in Greensboro, N.C., said the Tempest system may be a viable solution for handling animal waste.  <>

"We're interested in the technology because of the rapidity and extent that it can dry manure," Boyd said. "It looks like with further development, we might be able to get an alternative that can have some uses. We're trying to see this thing through to its success."

Bob Monley, general manager of Tampa-based Farm Pilot Coordination Inc., is optimistic about Balvanz's system.

 <>"He's an energetic guy and tenacious, and we think he's doing good things," Monley said. "We're trying to help each other. We think this product has potential to be commercialized."

Balvanz, who has owned recycling businesses in Manatee County for decades, is ecstatic about the agreement. "This is more than exciting," he said.

<>An endorsement by the federal government won't hurt his business, Balvanz said. "We look at it as we picked up a new $10 million arm to the company. We know that there's that much business alone in California in San Joaquin Valley in a 10-square-mile area."

He hopes to open a third office in California soon.

 

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