Triea Systems raises $2.2M to fight global warming with chicken poop (exclusive)

Entrepreneurs have to deal with a lot of shit, but usually it isn’t this kind.

Triea Systems is a green tech startup that converts heat from rejected, existing sources — like animal manure — into a usable resource. The startup’s technology turns manure into energy. It captures low-level heat from natural waste or heat excess at multiple sources, processes it, and recycles the energy with a 30 to 70 percent savings.

Commercial buildings can use Triea Systems to significantly reduce their utility bills and carbon footprint. Hotels, hospitals, and industrial facilities can use Triea’s units to cut down on the costs involved to maintain hot water heaters, cooling tower waters, and chiller operational costs, and to reduce their overall energy consumption.

“Heat recovery is like a hat trick,” said founder and CEO Jim O’Brien. “You score three goals when you implement this sustainable practice. You reduce your energy consumption, your operating expenses, and your carbon footprint, each very significantly and all for less than it costs to burn natural gas.”

Triea Systems is starting out with poultry houses. Poultry farmers embed heat exchangers directly into chicken litter which absorb energy and transfer it to the Triea system, where it is then pumped into the coops through an air handler. Chicken litter in the barn or poultry house can stay hot for over a month. However this is just the beginning, and Triea’s chairman Art Lazerow said it is a “game-changing system.”

Art Lazerow is the father of Michael Lazerow, cofounder and CEO of social analytics startup Buddy Media, which sold to Salesforce last year for $689 million. The startup has raised $2.2 million, with $1.2 million coming from Art Lazerow.

Triea Systems is based in Maryland, and this financing will help ready the product for the commercial market. This news comes shortly after President Obama announced sweeping measures to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. He revealed a three-pronged climate-change plan that included federal funding for renewable energy technology. Carbon dioxide passed a “long-feared milestone” in May 2013, surpassing 400 parts per million and underscoring the ever-increasing need for private companies, governments, and citizens alike to take action.

Whether you are biking instead of driving, lobbying to preserve endangered habitats, or using chicken shit to heat your business, every little bit matters.