The occupants of the Toronto Zoo produce nearly 1,000 tons of excrement per year. Officials believe they have a plan to recycle this material into a very beneficial product.
Dave Ireland is the zoo's conservation program head and he told reporters that the facility was seeking bids to construct a recycle facility. The dung materials will be naturally processed to produce methane gas, which will be collected and burned. The heat will drive generators with the excess heat used to warm the facilities. It is calculated that the new facility will produce the equivalent amount of electricity that is normally needed to power 5,000 homes.
According to Ireland, no other zoo in the world is doing this. The project will reduce a large waste stream and significantly reduce the zoo's $1.3 million annual gas bill.
RoyBigham roy@pollutionengineering.com Roy D. Bigham has been the editor of Pollution Engineering since 2002. Bigham attended Eastern Michigan University where
he majored in chemistry and computer science with an associates degree
in mathematics. He has worked as a laboratory technician at a research
laboratory, managed an electroplating operation and an associated
analytical laboratory. He spent three years overseeing environmental
operations of five domestic and five overseas operations for a major
manufacturer in the Detroit area. He then managed a field services
department for an environmental analytical laboratory before moving on
to a position as an environmental engineer for a construction
aggregates company.
Bigham
won a design award for a waste water treatment system for a landfill in
the Detroit area from the State Chamber of Commerce. He has been active
in the environmental field since 1980.
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