The briefing will bring together farmers, environmentalists, and business developers from EcoCombustion.

EcoCombustion Energy Systems has developed the Elimanure® System on a 2,000-head dairy farm in Brown County. This system dries the manure, burns to generate up to 600 kilowatts of renewable energy capacity, enough to power 600 homes.

The Elimanure® System reduces manure volume by over 90% and eliminates the threat of water pollution from land spreading of raw waste. The remaining material is a high quality fertilizer, free of harmful pathogens, and easy for the farmer to handle and spread where needed.

Animal manure is an ancient but largely untapped energy resource. Wisconsin’s animal manure represents 4.26 million tons of coal equivalent energy if burned, or about 1/6th of Wisconsin’s current coal usage, according to a 2007 report Cellulose Prairie: Biomass Potential in Wisconsin and the Midwest, by Better Environmental Solutions, an energy and environmental consulting firm. For the report, go to http://betterenvironmentalsolutions.com/reports/CellulosePrairie.pdf.