Poo power lifts off at Toronto Zoo

Animal manure at the Toronto Zoo is being turned from smelly dung to valuable resource  after the zoo’s board signed an agreement with ZooShare to use the exotic waste as feedstock for a biogas plant.

ZooShare’s Dr. Christine Koenig says they expect to receive around 3,000 tons of manure material collected from the animal enclosures. That material, which is currently composted, as well as food waste from a major grocery chain, will feed the 500-kW scalable biogas plant. The plant will produce electricity, heat and fertilizer.

The ZooShare Biogas Co-operative is funding, designing, developing, constructing and operating the plant on lands leased from the zoo.

A number of consulting companies founded the non-profit, community cooperative, whose mission is “to drive the growth of community-owned biogas around Ontario.” The founding companies are Angus Power, Koenig & Consultants, ReGenerate Biogas and Reepma Consultants.