Millionaires now step into manure
Dave Finlayson
CanWest News Service
Saturday, August 18, 2007
EDMONTON -- Shane and Evan Chrapko are up to their boot tops in manure and couldn't be happier.
The brothers, who sold their two-year-old dot-com company for more than $850 million in a boom that seems so long ago now, have gone back to their rural roots for their latest project.
The one-time Brosseau, Alta., farm boys are co-CEOs at Highmark Renewables, a new biofuels company based near Vegreville, Alta., about 90 kilometres east of Edmonton.
They were impressed with the technology developed by feed-lot owner Bern Kotelko and the Alberta Research Council to convert cattle manure and other waste to a biogas that produces electricity, ethanol or plain heat, Evan Chrapko said.
"We have seven years of technology that's been patented now, so the maturity's there. And the economics of our plant are 10 times as good as the equivalent capacity of a stand-alone ethanol plant," he said.
"This model is very compelling, and we're finding it easy to communicate that to investors. In fact, it's been easier than it was to raise money for the dot-com."
That's a good thing, because they are trying to raise $400 million to expand the facility and eventually build other plants across Alberta.
They also see good opportunities in municipal waste treatment, and the brothers just got back from China where they hope to market the technology.
With his law and accounting backgrounds, Evan tends to be the front man for the duo's 15 years of business ventures. But he is quick to point out that Highmark is his brother's baby due to his agriculture expertise.
Evan is on the six-member panel reviewing Alberta's oil-and-gas royalty regime, but was a bit surprised when asked to be honorary chair of this fall's River City Roundup festival in Edmonton, which celebrates agricultural life.
"I guess they thought I was the best example of bridging the gap between the city and the country," he said.
Meanwhile, engineering plans are coming along for the Vegreville expansion and there will be no shortage of raw material. Kotelko's Highland Feeders is Canada's sixth largest feedlot with more than 36,000 head.
And that's a lot of manure.
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