Cattail for Clean Community Waterways: Turning urban plants into compost and bioenergy
IISD is working with the City of Winnipeg to improve urban environmental management and water quality, as well as to enable bioenergy development and production of compost and use in through innovative value chains from plant materials from routine city ditch and prairie grass maintenance.
An impetus for this comes from a need to improve and enhance water quality in urban areas and in downstream Lake Winnipeg. The project began in 2013 with the harvesting of cattail (Typha spp.) and prairie grasses at numerous sites within the City of Winnipeg. The harvested plant materials were then compressed into biofuel pellets that were burned for heat in a City of Winnipeg pellet stove, located at the Living Prairie Museum. An additional component in 2015–2016 involves the addition of cattail, harvested from urban ditches and prairie sites, into the City’s large-scale composting facility.
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Canada Should Copy Europe When It Comes to the Bioeconomy
The recently announced EU Bioeconomy Strategy continues that continent’s legacy of advancing biological solutions to environmental questions and strategically highlights the economic benefits of the approach with a strong focus on jobs, growth and investment. Read More -
Wetlands: Protecting us from floods and saving us money
Can wetlands protect us from floods, while also bringing us financial benefits? Hisham Osman thinks so... Read More -
Smart-Sourced Fuel Products
Many different types of “waste” or under-used plant materials can be turned into value-added bioenergy fuel products. This brochure, available in both English and French, focuses on such materials available in Manitoba, Canada, including agricultural residues, forestry residues, grassland plants and wetland plants. Read More -
Cattails Into Clean Energy: Where to from here?
Richard Grosshans takes a look at the success our bioeconomy work harvesting cattails into clean-energy pellets, and discusses where the project is headed now. Read More -
Nature's wealth: Wetlands as filters, fuel, flood protection and food
This publication, originally published as a news-style insert in the Winnipeg Free Press and the Brandon Sun, explores the many benefits of wetlands Read More -
Video
Cattails for Clean Community Waterways
In 2013, the City of Winnipeg and IISD embarked on a project to turn locally harvested cattail (Typha) and native prairie grasses into pellets to burn Read More