Zealand technology turns manure into power Mountains of manure
from cows and chickens will soon be helping to heat houses in
Canada thanks to technology from Flotech Inc. The New Zealand-
based company has a water-scrubbing system that converts
unrefined “biogas” emitted by agricultural waste into natural
gas clean enough for use in homes. Flotech’s first biogas
upgrading system in Canada is now up and running at an
Abbotsford farm about 80 miles southeast of Vancouver. Catalyst
Power is aggregating the waste from several local farms that
were struggling with dairy, poultry and vegetable waste and
converting it into pipeline-quality natural gas that is injected
directly into the local utility grid, helping to provide energy
to more than 900,000 customers across the province. Manure
management has become a huge issue in the United States and
Canada. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates
that more than 335 tons of dry matter waste is produced annually
on farms in the United States. With the avera