National Business Review
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.”