Thoeni North America Inc.
Thoeni is a family-run group of companies with over half a century history of growth in the sustainability industry. Since 1991, Thoeni Environmental Energy Engineering has been building and developing systems designed to generate bioenergy from organic waste. The business has flourished in Europe where landfill space is at a premium and governmental financial incentive are offered for organics management.
Thoeni North America was formed in 2017 to bring Thoeni know-how and innovative technology to the US and Canadian markets. The company has offices in Abbotsford, British Columbia and Pleasanton, California. Thoeni supplies front end engineering and design support, core digester technology, construction supervision, commissioning and biological support services. Thoeni North America works actively with their qualified integration partners to promote, sell and deliver projects across North America.
Rolfe Philip, President of Thoeni North America Inc. shared that “Thoeni’s success is based on our portfolio of anaerobic digestion systems that are able to process contaminated high solid urban feedstocks such as OFMSW, Yard/Garden & food waste and agricultural feedstocks such as straw, corn stover, and silage. To manage these feedstocks Thoeni has had to develop robust agitation systems for both its horizontal plug flow and high solids CSTR digestion systems. These agitation systems operate at slow speeds & high torque allowing for thorough mixing of these challenging feedstocks. In addition, our mixing system enable optimal biogas liberation and ensure that sinking and floating contaminants remain in suspension and are therefore carried out of the digesters before they cause operational issues.”
Thoeni is unique in that it designs, engineers and fabricates its own core components ensuring quality control of all its systems.
Thoeni North America “go to market” strategy involves working with a group of highly qualified system integration partners with unique industry expertise to provide core services from project sales & development to local fabrication and construction. Thoeni North America has also been actively searching for and hiring a team of industry experts to manage their business.
Thoeni currently has over 170 operating high-solid systems in Europe and Asia and is progressing into the North American market. TNA entered the construction installation phase on the City of Calgary’s organic waste biogas facility project which consists of two parallel mid-size plug flow digesters, each capable of processing 35,000 tonnes/year of yard, garden and food waste.
Regarding the outlook of the industry, Mr. Philip thinks that biogas in Canada has a strong future ahead. Expanding jurisdictional mandates for the diversion of organics from landfills and the country’s continued support for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are key to ensuring the long-term development of the industry in Canada. Thoeni became a member of the Canadian Biogas Association in 2024. Rolfe shares that “We appreciate the role that the CBA has in promoting the industry and lobbying all levels of government, and we wanted to support the association just as they support the industry. When the industry grows, we all benefit.”
