Sunoma Renewable Biofuel Project

Background:

The Paloma Dairy, located in Gila Bend, AZ, is about 90 minutes southwest of Phoenix. Owned by the Robert Van Hofwegen family, the farm has 14,000 cows ranging from newborn calves to full-sized milking cows housed in a series of barns known as Saudi Barns open-lot pens. The farm currently handles its manure by flushing techniques. The dilute waste flows by gravity to a series of storage and settling lagoons where it is held for land spreading as a fertilizer on their 10,000 acres of cropland. The dairy desired to increase farm sustainability by generating biogas through anaerobic digestion methods.