Manure-to-energy company advances

The manure-processing business just got better for an Old Bethpage biofuels company.

Bion Environmental Technologies Inc. said Friday that it got preliminary approved for a planned Pennsylvania dairy farm that will include ethanol production and cattle-waste processing.

Pennsylvania environmental protection officials approved a "demonstration permit" for phase one of the company's Kreider Farms project, the company said.

About 1,200 cows will be part of the initial phase of the "confined animal feeding operation" plan.

The Lancaster County, Penn., farm will bring in corn to make ethanol, feed cattle with ethanol-production byproducts, and process manure to make fuel to power the ethanol plant.

Plans are to process manure to reduce solid nitrogen and phosphorus, as part of a regional effort to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

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