20 Minutes with Leon &..‪.‬ Bio360 Expo

This week we are talking carbon capture and storage technology (BECCS) with Michael Brogle. Michael works as a Business Development Manager at Neustark AG. Based in Switzerland, Neustark is a BECCS company, which captures biogenic CO2 and permanently stores it in recycled concrete.

Neustark’s plants and processes are in use in Switzerland and various European countries, the company currently expands its international operations with a strong focus on the French market.

They have a very unique approach from source to sink. We are delighted that they have chosen to come to Bio360 Expo to further their development and build up the international markets in collaboration with local biogas and concrete recycling partners.

Pour ce tout premier épisode de l'année 2023, Léon accueille Guillaume Charpy, Président / CEO de CarbonWorks, une joint-venture entre Fermentalg et Suez, créée en 2021 pour capter le CO₂ biogénique et industriel émis pour le transformer en matières premières biosourcées pour l'industrie via les microalgues .

Guillaume Charpy a un parcours professionnel à la croisée de l'environnement d'une part, du lancement et de l'accélération d'activités innovantes d'autre part. Il a travaillé en France et à l'étranger dans divers secteurs : eau, recyclage de batteries électriques, hydrogène vert, biotechnologies, dans de grands groupes ainsi qu'à la tête de start-up. Il nous emmène sur le fil conducteur de ses expériences et de sa vision de la décarbonation de l'industrie.

Biochar will be one of our key themes at Bio360 Expo next February and we’re very happy to dive straight away into the subject with one of our speakers, Harald Bier.

Harald is at the Head of the European Biochar Industry Consortium (EBI) Office . He is a geographer with a Master in humanitarian action. He spent 10 (hands-on) years on biochar and soil stabilisation projects, developed adapted « Terra Preta » techniques and found that joining the EBI was the most efficient way to pursue his fight against climate change.

What exactly is biochar ? What are its applications, perspectives and beneficiaries ?

Biochar is now clearly stepping into the limelight with a promising future on various applications. Its strength is its diversity of applications. Facing its rapid growth, what are the potential risks associated with over expectations ?

If you wish to know what biochar is all about and get a glimpse on its promising bright future, this is an episode not to be missed.

Célia Sapart is a climatologist, specialist in greenhouse gas emissions and the link between human activities and the climate. 

In 2012, she defended her doctoral thesis and published her results in the Scientific Review Nature. Then after two post-docs, she became a research fellow at the Belgian FNRS and participated in numerous international polar missions.

Noting the growing impact of our activities on the polar regions, she made the decision in 2019 to put her research aside and get involved at the forefront of climate action by joining CO₂ Value Europe.

This young international organisation, recognised today by the European authorities, represents the “Carbon Capture and Utilisation” community in Europe. Its objective: to promote sustainable and circular solutions, based on the recovery of CO₂ in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the most polluting sectors and to "defossilise" the economy. Célia is the scientific Director of the association and she notably coordinates the committee of scientific experts with whom she participated as an expert in the review of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

In this episode Célia tells us about her background and motivation to join CO₂ Value Europe. She explains the organisation's mission and approach to solutions. With great clarity she distinguishes the various terms commonly used today by the IPCC and gives us the vision on how we can create carbon circularity to fight climate change.

Dr Vlatko Materic is the founder and CTO of Hot Lime Labs, a Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) company with a technology to supply hydroponic greenhouses with clean CO₂ recovered from biomass waste combustion of biochar making off-gases. Hot Lime Labs believes that the high economic value-add of clean CO₂ to the greenhouse industry combined with the carbon-negative potential of Biochar can generate a powerful carbon cascade i.e. an economically self-sustaining carbon sink capable of absorbing millions of tonnes of CO₂.

Vlatko is a Chem. Engineer by trade and had been researching CCS technologies for 10 years before realising the key issue was commercial!

This led him to find an early market niche for growing the technology - the vast global hydroponic greeenhouse industry, which routinely uses fossil based CO₂ to feed their plants and increase yields by 15-20%. With the match between market and technology found , Vlatko started Hot Lime Labs in 2017 to take the technology to Market. 5 years of intense growth later, with a successful pilot in hand, the company is completing the first commercial demonstration unit for Gourmet Mokai in Taupo, NZ, and is preparing for a technology rollout in NZ and the EU in 2023.

Heard it ? Now want to see it ?  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcAGh_sMSVM

In this episode, Leon is having a deep and insightful conversation with Anders Mathiasson, The President of the European Biogas Association who reviews the main points of focus of the last European Biogas Conference that took place on October 25th in Brussels. If you have not attended the conference, this episode is not to be missed.

Anders has been in the energy and gas industry for more than 25 years now. In the mid 1990s he started working for the energy company Öresundskraft in Southern Sweden as Managing Director, then as CEO of the Swedish Gas Association between 2004 and 2016. His work has formed the basis for some of the Swedish government's proposals for improved conditions for biogas.

Europe has fixed a target of 35 bcm on biomethane production by 2030. How are the EBA and the European Commission working together to meet this target ? What happened during the Conference and what is the state of the market for biogas and biomethane ? What are the perspectives for the biogas and biomethane players ?

Anders is giving us an insiders perspective before coming to Bio360 Expo in Nantes where he will join our international experts for the dedicated Biogas conference on 8th of February 2023.