Toronto Zoo Looks to Poo for Electricity
The Toronto Zoo wants to build a $13 million facility that would turn “zoo poo” into electricity.
The call for an on site anaerobic digester – using methane gas from animal waste to produce power – is part of the zoo’s new push to become “carbon-neutral.”
The question is how to pay for it. At yesterday’s zoo board meeting, members suggested asking the city to foot the bill, or bringing in a private outfit to build and operate it.
The first suggestion seems like a long shot given Toronto Mayor David Miller’s recent edict calling for city departments and agencies to flatline their budgets for 2009.
“We have to ask what’s right for the zoo,” Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker told the board. “If budget committee and council says no, that’s their right. We have to put this on the table to let committee and council know just exactly the potential at the zoo.”
The zoo has recently adopted a “green mandate” to draw visitors interested in protecting the Earth.
This theme is what’s behind a yet-to-be launched $250 million fundraising campaign, which remains on hold awaiting a report from a consultant on how to proceed.
Zoo board members heard that a digester big enough to produce 4 megawatts could power the zoo plus 15,000 homes in Scarborough.
The technology isn’t new. It’s used extensively in Germany, for instance. Staff told the board the process doesn’t involve incineration, and there’s no combustion.
It could be running soon and would reduce the zoo’s carbon footprint by 40 per cent, staff said.
The zoo keeps a large pile of animal waste on site, some of which is used as fertilizer. One by-product of a biogas facility could be a higher-grade fertilizer, which De Baeremaeker suggested could be sold.
Councillor Norm Kelly said he liked the sound of the plan but would “curb my enthusiasm” until he saw a business plan.
The board asked staff to prepare a request for proposals to see which businesses might be interested in getting involved.
“It’s the wave of the future,” De Baeremaeker said, adding it could make the zoo a world leader in minimizing carbon emissions.
Better than growing mushrooms in it! (Right Friar?)
I expect some of us will also have cars that run on this someday.
Brett Legree’s last blog post..summer’s end.
@Brett
It sounds like they’re trying to make the best of a shitty situation.
(Ar! Ar! Ar!)
LOL!!!
I think it makes sense and frankly I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to figure this out…
If cars could run on poo… well… I’m not sure what that would mean, but it would revolutionize the sewage industry.
Surely the zoo could get a grant for the 13 million. Compared to other monetary needs, that is not a large amount.
Now, I wonder how much a digester for a single home (mine!) would cost. I’ve got a small menagerie of pets that could power the A/C in the summer, perhaps.
Ian’s last blog post..Election Haiku
LOL. What a great idea!
Ian: Great point. My husband proposed the same thing just yesterday after walking our dog (who seems to go at least three times a day!). Imagine the savings on our home heating bills …
You guys…maybe we’re onto something here!! The smell might not be the most pleasant but think of the benefits!
There’s a professor at the University of Waterloo (Ontario). Murray Moo Young. A biochem prof.
I don’t know what his present research is involved in. But 25 years ago, he was working on converting poo (the Human kind!) into edible food.
Hmmm…I guess it never quite took off, did it?
@Friar,
McDonalds beat him to the punch…
(And then there’s Soylent Green.)
Brett Legree’s last blog post..summer’s end.
@ Friar: EWWW. Is there any benefit to that, considering what we eat? It’s as appealing as drinking your own urine, which I know isn’t at all unheard of! No thank you!!
@Brett: LOL!!!
I’ll have to dig up the article, but I found one a while ago about a toilet that used the energy from poo to purify pee into drinking water!
I’m serious…
Brett Legree’s last blog post..summer’s end.
Ewwww! And wow!!
Brett, that is too funny about the toilet. Shades of that Kevin Costner movie, whatever it was called.
Beth Partin’s last blog post..Second Chances, Last Chance
Waterworld??
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