Month: July 2020

Media Release Friday, 15 October 2010

“SOUTHLAND FARM TECHNOLOGY FIRM WINS NATIONAL CLEAN TECH CHALLENGE”

Southland Clean Tech Challenge winner to take his idea to the world

A special grant from Chevron will see local businessman Lindsay Lewis, owner of Clean Green Ltd – New Zealand’s most promising clean technology idea, travel to San Francisco in November.

Mr Lewis will represent New Zealand in the Chevron-sponsored Global Clean Tech Open Ideas Competition as part of the Global entrepreneurship Week, and compete to win $140,000 of prizes after winning the national competition, which was announced today (15 October 2010). His idea for a fully automated low application dairy effluent system which reduces dairy farmer water use by up to 60% was chosen as New Zealand’s best Clean Tech project.

The Southland Clean Tech Challenge, hosted by Venture Southland, is part of a global search for the most promising clean technology ideas. Ten regional competitions were held attracting a record number of entries, from which the national representative was chosen.

New Zealand inventors were challenged to submit their clean technology concepts for new products, accessories, communications campaigns and building designs. The criteria dictated designs were to be affordable and support great living with less reliance on resources.

“Last year, a New Zealand invention made the world finals, but we couldn’t afford to send the creator to the event. This year, thanks to a special grant from Chevron, we will be able to help the winner develop a professional presentation as well as providing flights and accommodation,” said competition organiser Rob Acton.

“But more than that, with the Chevron grant, we will also be able to produce a video of the most promising regional winners, which will be used to market them to investors and to promote clean technology innovation. We have some great entries with the potential to improve climate change outcomes for the whole world, and we can now get out and promote them, thanks to Chevron,” he said.

When told he had won the National Competition, along with $7000 of International travel and concept development scholarship Mr Lewis said “I’m still in shock. I believe I have designed the only environmentally friendly effluent system in the country and possibly the world. It’s nice to know that the Clean Tech judges can see the impact the Clean Green system will have on improving our dairy industry and environment.

The only way in which we can stop environmental pollution is through technology and improved agriculture practices; I hope regional councils and the industry continue to open their minds to new ways to attack an old problem.”

The Global Clean Tech Open Ideas Competition Final will be held in San Francisco on 17 November 2010.

By Teresa Hattan, mediart.net.nz – 21 June 2009

The Innovation centre at the 2009 Fieldays attracted 68 entries in the six categories, all vying for the ultimate Innovation award, The Golden Standard.

The awards were presented yesterday at a breakfast function on site at Fieldays.

The Innovation Centre at Fieldays is powered by the University of Waikato.

Guest speaker, Chancellor of the University of Waikato Jim Bolger, spoke on the value of innovation and the need for an open mind when faced with the ‘big’ innovations of the century, and said “Innovation is without value if it is still in the back shed.”

Fieldays is proud to acknowledge the sponsorship of these awards from the University of Waikato, Straight Furrow and James and Wells Intellectual Property, and is excited by the number and variety of entries this year.

Fieldays Innovations organiser Lianne Dunbar said “Innovation entries this year have been outstanding in both volume and quality.”

The Environmental Golden Standard Award was won by Lindsay Lewis, for his Clean Green Effluent System. This low application, fully automated environmental effluent system, distributes the effluent evenly over a paddock thus reducing the environmental impact.

Highly Commended – Clean, Green Effluent Company

Lindsay Lewis of the Clean, Green Effluent Company has made it his mission to design and refine better ways for dealing with farm dairy effluent.

His system is based on the proven elements of K-line pods and storage ponds with a weeping wall, but with improved valves and other features that deliver effluent at very low application rates – as little as half a millimetre in 24 hours.

The ponds are lined with concrete with the weeping wall placed down the middle, making it easier to clean and more effective in the way it functions.

Trials with Lindsay’s system suggest that farmers can continue spraying effluent onto paddocks even during rainfall, avoiding the need for large storage ponds.

DairyMan Magazine – September 2010

NZ Dairy Exporter Magazine – 1st of August 2009

An effluent system which has a large positive impact on the environment without costing farmers more money won the Fieldays special 2009 category environmental award.

The Clean Green Effluent System was designed by Southlander Lindsay Lewis. It’s a low application, fully-automated environmental effluent system which distributes effluent evenly over a paddock, reducing the environmental impact.

Direct injection

Lewis said the modulated system can be adapted to any effluent system in stages to reduce initial costs. It is being installed in conjunction with direct injection into a centre pivot. Due to the reduced water usage, daily effluent being distributed to the fields is greatly reduced, meaning the dilution rate at the centre pivot can be as low as 0.5 percent.

“The extra-low application rate ensures a greater percentage of effluent stays in the plant root base,” he said.

“Tests carried out on the system by AgResearch, Mosgiel, showed a huge reduction in all the nasties.”

The AgResearch tests showed filtration of potential effluent contaminants when the effluent was applied to a mole pipe-drained site using a low 0.6mm/day approach.

Compared with a single application of 9mm/day of effluent, loads in mole-pipe drainage induced by daily application were reduced by 75 percent for dissolved reactive phosphorus (P). The figure was 92 percent for total P, 94 percent for ammonium-nitrogen (N), 75 percent for total solids and 99 percent for E. coli.

AgResearch’s Ross Monaghan said the test results clearly showed the difference between the system’s very low application rate and that of a standard system. It was a particularly good approach to applying effluent to heavy, mole-pipe drained soils or soils on sloping terrain.

For more information, phone 0800 400 365.

By Sarah Lamont – The Southland Times – 16/10/2010

Southland man Lindsay Lewis will represent New Zealand in San Francisco next month as the winner of the National Clean Teach Challenge.

Lewis was chosen from 10 regional finalists in Wellington yesterday after he presented his idea of a low application effluent system which reduced dairy farm water use by up to 60 per cent.

Clean Green Effluent Company owner Mr Lewis said it would take a while to sink in that he had won.

“I’m a bit stumped really … I was trying to keep it quiet.”

It was exciting but nerve-wrecking to think about presenting his idea to an audience of 2500 people, he said.

“It’s a pretty humongous audience … people from all over the world.”

He was trying not to think about it so he did not “freak” himself out, he said.

It was great to be representing Southland and it proved all the good ideas came from Southland, he said.

Mr Lewis had won the Southland Clean Tech Challenge hosted by Venture Southland earlier this month as part of a global search for the most promising clean technology ideas.

Venture Southland enterprise and strategic projects manager Steve Canny said Mr Lewis had done well and won quite a prestigious award.

His design was a combination of good engineering to achieve a positive environmental response to some local challenges.

Representing Southland to the world identified the work that had been done by entrepreneurs in this area with good practical solutions, he said.

Mr Lewis will represent New Zealand in the Chevron-sponsored Global Clean Tech Open Ideas Competition on November 17 in San Francisco.

A grant from Chevron would provide Lewis with flights and accommodation and help towards his presentation.

By John Lewis, Otage Daily Times – Thu, 14 Aug 2008

A new dairy-effluent pumping system invented by a Southlander could be the answer to the problem of effluent leaching from paddocks into waterways.

Dairy farmer turned electrician Lindsay Lewis has invented the system which allows farmers to fertilise their farms with stock effluent without polluting waterways with nitrates and faecal coliforms.

Until now, farmers have been using travelling irrigators or podline systems, which spread a higher quantity of effluent, for distribution.

However, many farmers were limited in the way they disposed of their effluent because of predominantly wet conditions in the region.

Mr Lewis said his Clean Green Effluent System used materials similar to those in portable irrigators to spray stock effluent on to farm paddocks.

But unlike other methods, the system used water pressure and timers to stop the flow of effluent from one paddock and redirect it to another before the pastures become saturated.

Some farmers did not favour podline technology because it was difficult and time-consuming to set up in farm paddocks.

However, Mr Lewis has incorporated the technology in his design and set it up so it is easily and quickly moved.

“We estimate it would take two people half an hour to move the K-Line pots once a month. Normally, they can take up to one and a-half hours to move every day.”

He said the system applied just enough effluent on a paddock to give the grass root system nutrients, but not so much that it leached into the water table or ran off into nearby waterways.

The idea was born out of friendship and necessity, he said.

“A friend converted his sheep farm into a dairy farm on the banks of the Mataura River and he asked me to design something, because he was concerned about the environmental impact on the river.

“There was nothing on the market that was man management free.”

After four years of development, Mr Lewis came up with the automated Clean Green Effluent System and installation of the prototype is almost complete on his friend’s Southland farm.

An average cow produces between 50 and 70 litres of effluent a day and disposing of it was difficult, he said.

“I think farmers get a huge rap for pollution.

“Present application systems cannot necessarily be monitored from the farm that is creating the damage. Once the effluent gets into the water table, it might not reappear for several miles and another farmer down the road gets the blame.”

Dairy farmers can be fined up to $200,000 and jailed for discharging dairy effluent to land in circumstances where it enters water.

Several Southland landowners and sharemilkers were prosecuted in the Environment Court recently and fined up to $20,000.

Mr Lewis hoped his system would revolutionise the dairy industry and have a significant impact on the health of the environment.

Environment Southland approved the installation of the Clean Green prototype but land sustainability officer Nathan Cruickshank declined to comment on it because it had not been proven in practice yet.

However, Otago Regional Council land resources manager Susie McKeague said the system had potential, on paper.

Some of the systems operating on Otago dairy farms applied large quantities of effluent in one go and, when the soils were wet, there was a limited amount of space for the effluent to go.

“A system that puts on a small amount of effluent like this one is a good choice, because you’ve got less chance of getting to field capacity or beyond.”

Having a choice of paddocks to spread the effluent was also valid, she said.

Invermay Agricultural Centre senior soil scientist Ross Monaghan said for farmers with land on sloping topography or with mole-tile drainage systems, the Clean Green Effluent System could be a useful tool.

Dr Monaghan said staff were studying the system in a controlled environment on a test plot in West Otago and water draining from the plot would be tested.

“On paper, it has the potential to be a best practice method for managing farm effluent,” he said.

Northland Farming Lifestyles Magazine – March 2010

“An enterprising Southland man, who invented an effortless solution for applying effluent to farm paddocks and at the same time reducing the risk of leaching, believes his recent award affirms the product’s worth to the dairy industry.

Lindsay Lewis, of Invercargill, has received numerous awards for his entry — the Clean Green Effluent System, in the South Island Agricultural Field Days at Waimumu and Lincoln, as well as Mystery Creek at Hamilton and also Environment Southland Awards.

“I created Clean Green Effluent System for a friend who had a wish list for the system, which included the capacity to be environmentally friendly, took less man hours to operate and used materials with similarities to that of the portable irrigators to spray stock effluent.

“The result was a system that uses water pressure and timers to stop the flow of effluent from a paddock and redirect it to another before it becomes saturated.

This environmentally friendly solution particularly provides for farmers whose farm land has a tendency towards saturated soil.

Effluent is applied at a rate of half a millimetre over 24 hours, ensuring that all effluent stays in the root base and the pasture’s root system is given sufficient nutrients.

There is a growing movement to protect rural waterways and harbours from farm runoff, notably with huge planting programmes, with dairying coming in for its fair share of criticism. At the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek this year, the winner of the Environmental Award was the Clean Green Effluent System, from the company of the same name.

The system uses a solids removal filter which filters out water for re-use, leaving an effluent residue which is used for spraying out as paddock fertiliser at a rate sufficient for plant nutrients, but not too much to cause leaching properties.

The system re-uses shed and yardwashing water to the extent that usage drops from the norm of 50 to 70 litres per cow to as low as 18 to 20 litres. The effluent disposal system is expected to come into its own as various local bodies in many areas of the country move to tighten up farm pollution and water standards.”