2008
Landcorp - Research and Development
25/11/08 15:11 Filed in: Landcorp | BioGenCool
...Devoting available resources for research and development to those areas which give the greatest economic advantage and which are not generally being investigated elsewhere in the agricultural community eg biogencool methane digester... Read More...
Canterbury Resource Management Awards 2008
...BioGenCool energy from dairy waste system is the winner of the EECA Special Award for Energy Efficiency, Conservation and Renewable Energy.
The project aims are the generation of energy using cow manure, greater energy self-sufficiency on-farm and conversion of cow manure to fertiliser. Judges said BioGenCool is a highly creative technology using a systems approach to take diary waste and convert it to useful on-farm resources. The project is bringing together different technologies to create an integrated system within a dairy farm... Read More...
The project aims are the generation of energy using cow manure, greater energy self-sufficiency on-farm and conversion of cow manure to fertiliser. Judges said BioGenCool is a highly creative technology using a systems approach to take diary waste and convert it to useful on-farm resources. The project is bringing together different technologies to create an integrated system within a dairy farm... Read More...
Offshore Firms Eye NZ Dairy Power from Gas
28/10/08 19:02 Filed in: Biogas | Electricity
by Malcolm Mountfort , 28/10/2008,
(c) 2008 Rural News Group, www.ruralnews.co.nz
A Christchurch company is sparking international interest in its BioGen system for energy recovery from dairy waste.
The system captures methane and carbon dioxide from dairyshed and feedpad effluent to fire hot water boilers and, if economic, to generate electricity. Read More...
(c) 2008 Rural News Group, www.ruralnews.co.nz
A Christchurch company is sparking international interest in its BioGen system for energy recovery from dairy waste.
The system captures methane and carbon dioxide from dairyshed and feedpad effluent to fire hot water boilers and, if economic, to generate electricity. Read More...
Finding Power in Effluent
By TIM CRONSHAW - The Press | Friday, 29 August 2008
A dairying system that is turning effluent into power and fertiliser in Canterbury is expected to revolutionise the way farmers treat cow muck.
Its investors have set up a pilot plant at a Landcorp Farming dairy farm in Eyrewell that is extracting methane and carbon dioxide from effluent with biodigester technology, and using it as fuel in a co-generation plant to make electricity. Read More...
A dairying system that is turning effluent into power and fertiliser in Canterbury is expected to revolutionise the way farmers treat cow muck.
Its investors have set up a pilot plant at a Landcorp Farming dairy farm in Eyrewell that is extracting methane and carbon dioxide from effluent with biodigester technology, and using it as fuel in a co-generation plant to make electricity. Read More...
Lighting up with cow-power
18/08/08 21:45 Filed in: Biogas | BioGenCool
By Angela Gregory (www.NZHerald.co.nz)
Power generated from cow dung has been identified as one way New Zealand could make billions from an emissions trading scheme.
The work of a Christchurch company in using biomass for electricity generation is offered as an example of a business opportunity in a report issued this morning as a curtain-raiser to a climate change conference in Auckland.
The 4th Australia-New Zealand Climate Change and Business Conference will be attended tomorrow morning by the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand, Kevin Rudd and Helen Clark, who will give their views on climate change.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also agreed to participate in the conference by making a video address.
More than 80 expert speakers from around the world will explore current climate change issues of relevance to business, such as implementing emissions trading and investments.
At the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development's "clean billions" breakfast at SkyCity today, a report for the Tindall Foundation will be issued in support of Stephen Tindall chairing the climate change leadership forum, which advises ministers on emissions trading.
The report says businesses will be expected to go beyond "carbon neutral" to become "carbon negative" .
It says many New Zealand firms are behind those in other countries in measuring the potential effects of pricing carbon and preparing plans to reduce it.
But it softens the blow by adding that opportunities are available for businesses and the economy which actively embrace emissions trading and make efforts to cut emissions, improve products and reduce emissions costs.
The report says businesses could make billions from new technology investments stimulated by the proposed emissions trading scheme.
Some of the main opportunities are included in biomass-like opportunities for some farmers to generate electricity from cow manure methane.
Natural Systems is already running a pilot project on a Landcorp dairy farm in North Canterbury.
Technical director Ian Bywater said a farmer with 850 cows (with feedpad) could save up to $30,000 a year in electricity costs.
The work of a Christchurch company in using biomass for electricity generation is offered as an example of a business opportunity in a report issued this morning as a curtain-raiser to a climate change conference in Auckland.
The 4th Australia-New Zealand Climate Change and Business Conference will be attended tomorrow morning by the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand, Kevin Rudd and Helen Clark, who will give their views on climate change.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also agreed to participate in the conference by making a video address.
More than 80 expert speakers from around the world will explore current climate change issues of relevance to business, such as implementing emissions trading and investments.
At the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development's "clean billions" breakfast at SkyCity today, a report for the Tindall Foundation will be issued in support of Stephen Tindall chairing the climate change leadership forum, which advises ministers on emissions trading.
The report says businesses will be expected to go beyond "carbon neutral" to become "carbon negative" .
It says many New Zealand firms are behind those in other countries in measuring the potential effects of pricing carbon and preparing plans to reduce it.
But it softens the blow by adding that opportunities are available for businesses and the economy which actively embrace emissions trading and make efforts to cut emissions, improve products and reduce emissions costs.
The report says businesses could make billions from new technology investments stimulated by the proposed emissions trading scheme.
Some of the main opportunities are included in biomass-like opportunities for some farmers to generate electricity from cow manure methane.
Natural Systems is already running a pilot project on a Landcorp dairy farm in North Canterbury.
Technical director Ian Bywater said a farmer with 850 cows (with feedpad) could save up to $30,000 a year in electricity costs.
Affluent Effluent
30/04/08 19:10 Filed in: BioGenCool | Biogas
Extract from Environment Canterbury, Living Here, April 2008.
A novel way of recovering energy on dairy farms is helping the environment. BioGenCool, installed as a pilot unit on a Landcorp Farming dairy unit at Eyrewell, North Canterbury, not only produces electricity from cow effluent but also produces biogas, ice to rapidly cool each day’s milk, and a more easily applied pasture fertiliser. Read More...
A novel way of recovering energy on dairy farms is helping the environment. BioGenCool, installed as a pilot unit on a Landcorp Farming dairy unit at Eyrewell, North Canterbury, not only produces electricity from cow effluent but also produces biogas, ice to rapidly cool each day’s milk, and a more easily applied pasture fertiliser. Read More...
NZ Farmers Generate Energy from Biogas
According to Radio New Zealand, with the increase in fuel and power prices, farmers are thinking up new ways of tapping into their own energy sources.
South Island cropping farmers are now growing thousands of hectares of oilseed rape under contract to the biofuel company, Biodiesel New Zealand.
But some are also growing the brassica to provide oil for their own diesel powered farm vehicles and machinery.
They include Earl and Vicki Dillon, who grow wheat, barley and other crops on their farm near Balfour in Southland.
They have just won the region's top farm environment award for their farming practices, which include using minimum tillage methods such as direct drilling to protect the soil structure and reduce compaction.
Earl Dillon says they are also growing rape to provide fuel for their grain drier. They have imported an extractor which produces squeezed oil. He says it will not be refined into biodiesel.
An energy technology company, Natural Systems Limited, has set up a pilot plant on a Landcorp farm.
The biogas, a combination of methane and carbon dioxide, is produced in a digester that processes dung and urine collected from the dairy shed holding yard.
It powers an engine that generates electricity, as well as providing heating and cooling.
The company's technical director, Ian Bywater, says he believes it is the only system operating on a New Zealand farm that puts electricity back into the national grid.
He says about a third of the energy usually bought through the meter will be supplied from this source.
He also says the size of the dairy industry makes it possible for more manure to be collected and therefore more energy to be produced locally, where it is needed.
TheBioenergySite News Desk
South Island cropping farmers are now growing thousands of hectares of oilseed rape under contract to the biofuel company, Biodiesel New Zealand.
But some are also growing the brassica to provide oil for their own diesel powered farm vehicles and machinery.
They include Earl and Vicki Dillon, who grow wheat, barley and other crops on their farm near Balfour in Southland.
They have just won the region's top farm environment award for their farming practices, which include using minimum tillage methods such as direct drilling to protect the soil structure and reduce compaction.
Earl Dillon says they are also growing rape to provide fuel for their grain drier. They have imported an extractor which produces squeezed oil. He says it will not be refined into biodiesel.
"We'll be able to burn it through the diesel burner, which fires the wheat dryer."
Biogas generated electricity
Meanwhile, a dairy farm in Canterbury is generating electricity from biogas extracted from cow dung.An energy technology company, Natural Systems Limited, has set up a pilot plant on a Landcorp farm.
The biogas, a combination of methane and carbon dioxide, is produced in a digester that processes dung and urine collected from the dairy shed holding yard.
It powers an engine that generates electricity, as well as providing heating and cooling.
The company's technical director, Ian Bywater, says he believes it is the only system operating on a New Zealand farm that puts electricity back into the national grid.
He says about a third of the energy usually bought through the meter will be supplied from this source.
He also says the size of the dairy industry makes it possible for more manure to be collected and therefore more energy to be produced locally, where it is needed.
View the Radio New Zealand story by clicking here."That relieves the transmission and distribution network."
TheBioenergySite News Desk
NSL Most Exciting Green Technology Company in NZ - NBR
Graeme Kennedy [NBR] see: www.excitingcompanies.co.nz
Christchurch company Natural Systems has developed an on-farm process to extract methane gas from dairy cow manure to generate electricity in a breakthrough that could save farmers thousands of dollars and clean the environment.
The system, BioGenCool, is operating on one of Landcorp’s 30 dairy farms with good results and is attracting strong interest from New Zealand farmers and others in Australia and the UK.
Natural Systems technical director Ian Bywater said the large amounts of waste had now become a commercially viable energy source. New Zealand’s four million dairy cows dumped a daily 200,000 tonne manure mountain with around 10% dropped on concrete hard stands such as dairy yards and supplemental feeding areas.
This waste could yield 80 mega-watts of power, Mr Bywater said. A farmer with 850 cows and a feed pad could save up to $30,000 a year in electricity costs through the BCG system.
“New Zealand has 12,000 dairy farms but that number is decreasing as they become bigger,” Mr Bywater said. “That means the market is coming to us with larger herds and more product to convert into fuel. And there are wider environmental benefits including less nitrate runoff and greenhouse gas abatement.”
Natural Systems topped the environmental technologies sector in The National Business Review’s monthly Exciting Companies series with a rating of 69.5 based on surveys by strategic business consultancy New River.
It led International Global Change Institute, Powersmart NZ, EnviroWaste NZ and Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation.
An electrical power engineer, Mr Bywater’s manure-to-electricity concept won a worldwide Engineering for a Sustainable Future competition organised by the UK Institute for Engineering and Technology in 2003.
“I had always had a strong interest in sustainability and renewable energy,” he said.
“I decided this should have commercial value and formed Natural Systems with two partners. Dairy is New Zealand’s biggest export earner and the concept was a process extracting valuable energy from a waste product to smooth out electrical demand and make savings on dairy farms.
“It can freeze water to chill milk, drive milking machinery and reduce imported power.”
The company carried out computer modelling of the system’s theoretical effects and conducted an energy report on a North Canterbury farm. State-owned Landcorp senior management supported the programme’s economic benefits and environmental value.
Mr Bywater said manure scraped from milking yards and increasing numbers of feed pads would be placed in 180,000-litre digesters heated to 35 degrees to liberate bio-gases made up of 65% methane and the rest carbon dioxide.
The gas is mixed with 15% diesel as its ignition source to run an engine and drive a generator.
Mr Bywater said the system cost depended on farm size but installation could be up to $200,000 for the largest properties.
BRING IT ON
Demand for environmental technology is booming, with 80% of respondents rating the sector as either very buoyant or buoyant, the New River survey found.
“There is a lot of growth in demand for solutions in industries with obvious issues such as dairy, and the number of consumers interested in these issues has increased dramatically in the past few years,” it said.
“It is becoming mainstream with more pressure on polluters to clean up as consumers demand more environmentally friendly products. Local government is pressuring clients, tourists want to see sustainable management and specific industry segments such as waste management materials recovery are caught up in the China-driven resource boom.
“There are now dozens of environmental technology companies, most of which are still small, working in traditional areas from cleaning up waste water and solid waste management. Newer areas include energy saving, climate change location forecasting and conversion of waste to energy and fertilizer.”
New River said, however, that a lack of clear government guidelines on emissions trading was slowing work in the energy sector.
“Businesses are unsure which clean technologies are going to be the most cost-competitive,” it said. “There is also no wider government policy framework for environmental issues — and this is creating uncertainty.”
Christchurch company Natural Systems has developed an on-farm process to extract methane gas from dairy cow manure to generate electricity in a breakthrough that could save farmers thousands of dollars and clean the environment.
The system, BioGenCool, is operating on one of Landcorp’s 30 dairy farms with good results and is attracting strong interest from New Zealand farmers and others in Australia and the UK.
Natural Systems technical director Ian Bywater said the large amounts of waste had now become a commercially viable energy source. New Zealand’s four million dairy cows dumped a daily 200,000 tonne manure mountain with around 10% dropped on concrete hard stands such as dairy yards and supplemental feeding areas.
This waste could yield 80 mega-watts of power, Mr Bywater said. A farmer with 850 cows and a feed pad could save up to $30,000 a year in electricity costs through the BCG system.
“New Zealand has 12,000 dairy farms but that number is decreasing as they become bigger,” Mr Bywater said. “That means the market is coming to us with larger herds and more product to convert into fuel. And there are wider environmental benefits including less nitrate runoff and greenhouse gas abatement.”
Natural Systems topped the environmental technologies sector in The National Business Review’s monthly Exciting Companies series with a rating of 69.5 based on surveys by strategic business consultancy New River.
It led International Global Change Institute, Powersmart NZ, EnviroWaste NZ and Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation.
An electrical power engineer, Mr Bywater’s manure-to-electricity concept won a worldwide Engineering for a Sustainable Future competition organised by the UK Institute for Engineering and Technology in 2003.
“I had always had a strong interest in sustainability and renewable energy,” he said.
“I decided this should have commercial value and formed Natural Systems with two partners. Dairy is New Zealand’s biggest export earner and the concept was a process extracting valuable energy from a waste product to smooth out electrical demand and make savings on dairy farms.
“It can freeze water to chill milk, drive milking machinery and reduce imported power.”
The company carried out computer modelling of the system’s theoretical effects and conducted an energy report on a North Canterbury farm. State-owned Landcorp senior management supported the programme’s economic benefits and environmental value.
Mr Bywater said manure scraped from milking yards and increasing numbers of feed pads would be placed in 180,000-litre digesters heated to 35 degrees to liberate bio-gases made up of 65% methane and the rest carbon dioxide.
The gas is mixed with 15% diesel as its ignition source to run an engine and drive a generator.
Mr Bywater said the system cost depended on farm size but installation could be up to $200,000 for the largest properties.
BRING IT ON
Demand for environmental technology is booming, with 80% of respondents rating the sector as either very buoyant or buoyant, the New River survey found.
“There is a lot of growth in demand for solutions in industries with obvious issues such as dairy, and the number of consumers interested in these issues has increased dramatically in the past few years,” it said.
“It is becoming mainstream with more pressure on polluters to clean up as consumers demand more environmentally friendly products. Local government is pressuring clients, tourists want to see sustainable management and specific industry segments such as waste management materials recovery are caught up in the China-driven resource boom.
“There are now dozens of environmental technology companies, most of which are still small, working in traditional areas from cleaning up waste water and solid waste management. Newer areas include energy saving, climate change location forecasting and conversion of waste to energy and fertilizer.”
New River said, however, that a lack of clear government guidelines on emissions trading was slowing work in the energy sector.
“Businesses are unsure which clean technologies are going to be the most cost-competitive,” it said. “There is also no wider government policy framework for environmental issues — and this is creating uncertainty.”