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ARTi Team Heads to Florida for the International Biomass Conference & Expo:

Carbon Sequestration with Biochar:

A Business Opportunity for Biomass Producers.

Jacksonville, Florida hosts the 15th annual International Biomass Conference & Expo on March 14-16, 2022. This unique event will offer a chance for professionals from the world’s interrelated biomass use industries, including biobased electricity, thermal energy, fuels, and chemicals to network and connect as well as find out about each other’s work. 

Future and existing producers of biobased power, fuels, and thermal energy products attend the International Biomass Conference & Expo to network with waste generators and other industry suppliers and technology providers. Project developers attend to meet with utility executives, researchers and technology developers to connect with venture investors, and Fortune 500 executives and powerful policymakers speak with American farmers and foresters.

ARTi fits into a number of these categories. We provide technology and supply processed biomass as valuable biochar. ARTi also provides techno-economic consultation. ARTi sent a team to join with the purpose of introducing the audience to the biochar production equipment we build and the products we develop with our equipment. We talked about some of the pyrolyzed forestry, agricultural, and industrial residue feedstocks. Following our operational capabilities, we will concentrate on life cycle assessments (LCA) of biochar production using our equipment, displaying carbon ratios and potential revenue from carbon credit sales. ARTi concludes the presentation by highlighting three business examples based on our techno-economic assessments.

Meet the ARTi Team members on this mission to Florida!

Matthew Kieffer MBA, Msc: Mechanical Eng (Director, Economics and Life Cycle Analysis)

Matthew Kieffer MBA, Msc: Mechanical Eng. University of Iowa, Iowa State University. Matt has worked to analyze and improve the economic performance of energy plants as well as breaking down biomass with pyrolysis, gasification and hydrothermal liquefaction to value-added products. His focus is on waste feedstock processing to usable oils and carbon media for applications in carbon sequestration, energy generation, agricultural soil remediation, as well as liquid and gas effluent filtration.

Lissette Cordova MBI, Bachelor of Economics and Business Administration (Manager, Economics and Life Cycle Analysis)

Lissette Cordova MBI, Economist and Business Administration Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Lissette is an Economics and Carbon manager at ARTi. She performs Life Cycle Assessments focused on biochar production. She also develops Techno-Economic Analyses (TEA) to evaluate the feasibility of projects, as well as opportunities for ARTi’s biochar systems in local markets. Finally, Lissette supports the academic research team for ARTi.

Diego Guevara, Mechanical Engineer (Manager, Economics and Life Cycle Analysis)

Diego Guevara,  Mechanical Engineering, Universidad San Francisco de Quito ARTi Mechanical Engineer: Ecuadorian, obtained his Mechanical Engineering degree from Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Diego is an Economics and Carbon manager at ARTi. He is developing Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Techno-economic analysis (TEA) to assess the feasibility of projects for biochar production and soil amendment applications. Diego also supports Carbon Credit Certifications, emissions evaluations, and project development areas at ARTi. His research interests include biomass transformation into fuels, biochar applications, economics, and finances. 

In Florida ARTi is presenting “Carbon Sequestration with Biochar: A Business Opportunity for Biomass Producers”. Biochar is ARTi’s primary area of expertise. Biochar is a stable form of carbon that has incredible soil advantages while also storing carbon dioxide. ARTi has created complex pyrolysis techniques to make this possible. ARTi’s pyrolysis technology is referred to as Biochar Production Units (BPU). We convert agricultural and other organic waste into profitable, long-term carbon products. These wastes would otherwise be burned or disintegrate in the environment. 

We will talk about co-products of biochar, economic feasibility of biochar in terms of carbon capture and ARTi’s ability to help other companies move towards “greening” their operations in a reliable and cost-effective way. 

For more information about the The International Biomass Conference & Expo please go here. 

Post Conference Updates:

The ARTi Team returning for the conference has the following observations about the event, things to notice that signal changes in the biochar sector and the knowledge levels of potential users. Add to this the encouraging level of interest in what ARTi and our presenter Diego Guevara had to say.

• There was a very strong attendance at the biochar session where Diego presented (full room, seated and standing).
• ARTi received lots of lots of positive comments on Diego’s presentation and increased connections made following it.
• More and more biomass suppliers/handlers are looking at biochar. Heat and carbon credits as options for additional revenue streams are also of increasing interest.
• Instead of needing to educate companies on biochar (many knew already) they were looking for resources and education on carbon credits.

If you missed Diego’s presentation don’t worry! We have it for you here:

Diego Guevara “Carbon Sequestration with Biochar: A Business Opportunity for Biomass Producers” Part 1

Diego Guevara “Carbon Sequestration with Biochar: A Business Opportunity for Biomass Producers” Part 2

We also met other great professionals working in the biochar space.

Left: Melissa Leung of GECA and ARTi delegation, Right: Suzanne Allaire CEO of pyrolysis and biochar consultancy GECA Environment

For more information on GECA visit their website here.

If you were at The International Biomass Conference & Expo 2022 please add a comment to this blog and share your views!