Anaerobic Food Waste Digestion Virtual Panel Discussion

Do you want to know more about Anaerobic Digestion? Please join SWANA Land of Lakes Chapter for our first virtual webinar on May 19, 2020 from 10:30 AM to Noon (CST) for a panel discussion on Food Waste Digestion and Technology Performance. GHD SWANA Member Margaret Zuckweiler will moderate representatives from three food waste digestion companies, Convertus, Suez Water Technologies, and Thoeni North America to discuss performance of their technologies.

Presenters

Panelist Ryan Lauzon Director of Business Development - Convertus Group North America

Ryan Lauzon has been working in the Organics business for more than a decade. During that period, he has built some of the largest organic waste treatment facilities in North America. Skilled in project management, procurement, business development, operations and sustainability. Using this skill set Ryan has developed and built Dry Anaerobic Digestion, In-vessel Composting and Wet Anaerobic Digestion sites in Canada and the United Kingdom, all surpassing 100,000 tons/year operating capacity. Most recently as the Design Build Director of the Surrey Biofuel Facility (BC).

Convertus Group North America has recently emerged in the Canadian marketplace and a full-service provider for Organic waste management. Convertus Group is made up of two of Canada’s leaders in organic waste processing, construction and design. We have merged the world class design of Waste Treatment Technologies B.V together with Renewi Canada’s existing operations to form a complete solution for the organic waste sector.

Renewi Canada (formerly Orgaworld Canada) is a waste-to-product business specializing in the treatment and recycling of organic waste to create compost, fertilizer and biofuel for the Canadian market. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in London, Ontario, Renewi Canada currently employs around 60 employees from four facilities in London and Ottawa, Ontario as well as Surrey & Nanaimo British Columbia. Renewi Canada is an innovative and fast-growing organic waste treatment company and is considered a market leader in the municipal organic recycling process.

WTT combines the latest mechanical and biological techniques in turnkey projects, which is part of our strength, and makes us one of the only “one-stop-shops” within the waste market. We are able to provide the right balance between mechanical pre- and/or post-treatment and biological treatment, which leads to better efficiency and biology within the waste system. WTT currently employs 50 people worldwide, founded in 1996 with offices in the Netherlands (HQ), Australia, Canada, China and Germany.

Panelist Nick Bonkoski Domain Leader - Suez Water Technologies

Nick Bonkoski is from the Philadelphia area and is a graduate from Penn State University with a degree in Environmental Engineering. Nick began his career as a Field Service and Commissioning Engineer for Zenon Environmental in 2005 (acquired by GE in 2006). He then spent six years working for Veolia Water first as a project engineer for industrial anaerobic digestion systems and then in municipal sales for thermal hydrolysis and biosolids technologies. As of May 2014, Nick is a Domain Leader with SUEZ Water Technologies and Solutions (formally GE Water) developing municipal, food waste and industrial anaerobic digestion projects across North and Latin America.

With operations in 130 countries and over 10,000 employees worldwide, SUEZ’s Water Technologies & Solutions is an established leader providing water technology and process expertise across industries worldwide.

We believe that when our customers win, we win. With industry-leading water technology and process expertise, we partner with our customers to build optimized solutions for lasting success. For example, our Advanced Digestion Technology (ADT) ensures that your digestion technologies are seamlessly operating to provide you with cost-effective and quality results. We help your company harness energy from waste, incorporate organics into your biowaste stream, reduce cake from digesters and potentially increase biogas yields from sludge by 25%. Trusted partner. Proven results. Visit www.suezwatertechnologies.com to learn more.

Panelist Rolf Philip VP of Business Development and Sales - Thoeni North America

Rolfe Philip is currently the VP of Business Development and Sales with Thöni North America Inc. (also spelled Thoeni) located in Pleasant Hill, California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thöni Gmbh, headquartered in Austria and a leading global supplier of high solid AD systems. Previously, he was the co-founder and VP of Sales for, Yield Biogas Solutions, a biogas system integration and support company.

Rolfe has been involved in all aspects of the biogas industry in North America for the past 12 years and is an outspoken optimist regarding its long-term value as a viable option for organics diversion. Rolfe is a past board member of the American Biogas Council and holds an Honors BA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, an MBA from York University, Toronto and a PhD from the Biogas School of Hard Knocks!

Thöni North America (TNA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Thöni Industriebetriebe GmbH located in Austria, is headquartered in Pleasant Hill, California.

Thöni has over 25 years of experience in the design engineering, construction and operation of anaerobic digestion systems for municipalities and waste management companies around the globe. They are the leaders in delivering and supporting continuous high solid AD systems capable of processing a wide range of feedstocks from FOGS, commercial SSO, residential yard/garden & food scrap collection to problematic organic fractions of MSW (aka MRF fines).

Thöni North America works with a select group of AD system integrators, including Suez WTS who is also presenting today, to deliver these systems and solutions in North America.

Moderator from GHD, Margaret Zuckweiler, PE MN

Margaret Zuckweiler is senior engineer based out of the St. Paul GHD office and has 19 years of solid waste management experience in the Minneapolis/St Paul Area. She received degrees from University of North Dakota (B.S. Geology) and University of Wisconsin Madison (M.S Geological Engineering). Her work at GHD for the last 8 years includes projects throughout North America and runs the gamut of traditional solid waste projects and organics management projects.

Established in 1928 and privately owned by our people, GHD operates across five continents – Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America – and the Pacific region. We employ more than 10,000 people in 200+ offices to deliver projects with high standards of safety, quality, and ethics across the entire asset value chain. Driven by a client-service-led culture, we connect the knowledge, skill and experience of our people with innovative practices, technical capabilities, and robust systems to create lasting community benefits.

GHD has historically acknowledged the changing nature of waste streams and the importance of providing sustainable waste management solutions. As a result, GHD adapted its solid waste practices to include technologies that prioritize diversion from landfills, including organics management, recycling, and thermal processes. The proliferation of organics management systems and facilities has been aggressive in the last decade, and GHD has been on the cusp of this revolution in waste management.

GHD completes waste related projects for a broad range of clients including regional municipalities, metropolitan governments, cities, and private developers as well as members of the agricultural, industrial, and commercial sectors. We have completed a wide variety of organics projects in a number of technical areas at facilities located across North America.