Engineering an Energy Solution As befits a family of Penn State agricultural engineers, the Massers are always looking for ways to bring advanced technologies to the age-old practice of growing potatoes. One innovation takes literally the adage that one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure.

In 2004, the Massers’ Keystone Potato Products opened an energyefficient processing plant to make instant mashed potatoes in Hegins, Pa. To fuel an 800-horsepower boiler, the plant uses methane gas emitted as a natural by-product of solid waste decomposition from a 100-acre landfill nearby. There are only a few boilers like it on the continent, and Keith Masser explains that the processing plant was designed to take advantage of what would otherwise be a pollutant seeping from the landfill owned by Commonwealth Environmental Systems, a private company.

Masser conceived and designed the facility with Cory Schlegel, general manager of Keystone, who was hired in the development phase of the project and was instrumental in identifying the site. “As we looked at energy options, we started by looking at cogeneration plants burning waste coal, but we couldn’t find a suitable location because plants built in proximity to waste coal fields are not easy to access. Then we looked at other low-cost fuel sources for high-energy processing, and Cory found a parcel of land near the landfill. Construction wasn’t prohibitive—the landfill already had a waste-gas collection system. We can purchase methane at one-sixth the price of coal, oil, or natural gas.”

The plant’s development had a definite blue-and-white theme throughout. “Both Cory and I have degrees from Penn State, and those degrees gave us the foundation of technical and problem-solving skills,” Masser says. “[Penn State Agricultural Engineering Professor] Paul Walker had been working on a blanching process to partially cook potatoes, so we looked at putting in a blanching process from the beginning.”

The impact of Masser’s innovation reaches beyond potato processing: In January 2007, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection approved an expansion of the landfill, almost doubling its disposal area and average daily volume. In approving the expansion, DEP cited the landfill gas-collection project with Keystone. And Masser says more innovations are coming.

“We’re looking at increasing our processing, using steam to keep growing the plant,” he says. “Currently, we’re using only a fraction of the methane being generated, so we’re in the process of expanding to install a peel-waste drier so that we can utilize potato peels.” He explains that the potato-peel waste generated when they produce dehydrated potato flakes and potato flour is already being used as cattle feed at nearby feed lots. Drying the waste will allow them to sell it on the open market, creating another revenue stream. The Massers also have long-range aspirations to use landfill gas to generate electricity.

—Gary Abdullah