Eliminating emissions by turning waste into power
Livestock waste is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions around the world. The agricultural industry in the United States accounts for 9% of US emissions. This includes methane emissions from livestock waste and nitrous oxide which is in the soil. Eric Smith, our 2018 CASE Launch Pad winner, is leveraging recent innovations in the industry to help turn these gases into power through his company NCycle.
NCycle in a historic industry
Humans have been caring for livestock for many millennia. While we have seen farmers adapt to scale their output, there is little focus on addressing one of the more pressing issues around the industry. Waste emissions. The waste that livestock such as cattle, swine, and poultry produce is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
NCycle is looking to address this issue by providing farmers with the technology to take waste, capture the gases and turn them into power. Once the emissions have been removed from the waste, the remaining product can be used as field fertilizer and animal bedding. The typical waste product that is used as fertilizer retains nitrous oxide, which is bad for the environment. In contrast, the NCyle technology creates a final waste product that is emission reducing.
Where is NCycle now?
Since graduating from Fuqua, Eric continues to pursue bringing this technology to NC poultry farmers. He is currently focused on finding a business proposition for the technology that makes it more desirable for struggling farmers to adopt.
Read more about past Launch Pad winners and explore our Scaling Pathways series to learn more about the journeys other impact enterprises have taken to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.