(FRANKFORT, Ind.) -- Hog manure from area farms could provide power for more than 200 homes along with the suppliers, supporters of the plan told Clinton County officials.

The report delivered to county commissioners and council members on Monday was the result of an eight-month, $75,000 study paid for by the city of Frankfort, Clinton County and the federal government.

The plan would hinge on a $5.5 million biorefinery that would convert waste piped in from hog farms into methane gas and carbon dioxide gas. The gases would power generators that would send power back to the farms and homes, said Gina Sheets, economic development director for the Clinton County Chamber of Commerce.

"Nobody has looked at it as a holistic industrial symbiosis," said Jim Dunning of Greenfield-based Thomas P. Miller and Associates, a project consultant.

The biorefinery would be built at the center of a 2.5-mile, 8-inch diameter underground pipe. One proposed site about 25 miles southeast of Lafayette is at the intersection of Indiana 39 and Indiana 38, where two hog farms already are located. Planners want the operation to be able to refine the daily waste products of up to 40,000 hogs.

Dunning said the project would have to be financed through a mix of public and private sources.

Planners still must meet with state energy, agricultural and economic development officials and advertise for proposals for someone to own, operate and build the facility, Sheets said. Construction could start as early as the spring, she said.

County Councilman Mike Beard, who has a hog farm within the area, said he wanted more details.

"I don't want the county government to finance this," he said. "I didn't hear the economics of the system."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)