Integrated Manure Management System (IMUS)

Most people see cow manure as a smelly, environment-fouling mess.  A pilot project near Vegreville converted manure into a bountiful provider of energy, soil nutrients and water. 

Manure from about 10,000 cattle at the Highland Feeders feedlot is being anaerobically digested to produce methane, which is used to power a one-megawatt Combined Heat and Power unit.  Electricity produced by the unit - enough to meet one quarter of Vegreville's 5,400-person needs - is sold to the grid.  Generated heat feeds the digesters, which produce solids used in bio-based fertilizers and water for irrigation and dust suppression.

C3 was a partner in the project, which was conceived in 2002 and launched in 2005.