Author: Valdeir Arantes

April Biorenewables Café

Our next Café will happen on Tuesday April 22nd, from 6:30-7:30pm at at the Railway Club on 579 Dunsmuir St. Join us for a friendly discussion lead by our guest speaker Dr. James Olsen on the emerging BC forest bio-economy.

Title: The emerging BC forest bio-economy: What does Origami have to do with bio-materials?

Abstract: The presentation will review some of the interesting, renewable materials that can be created from forest biomass. The research will examine some of the new nano and micro fibrous materials and potential products. In addition, James will present a novel, yet simple, self-folding material that can self-assemble into complex origami shapes.

Bio: Professor James Olson is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UBC and holds the FPInnovations Professorship. He was the Director of the Pulp and Paper Centre and is currently the Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Applied Science. He has conducted research in support of the BC Forest products industry for more than 20 years in a wide range of areas with recent emphasis on fibre and other bio-materials.

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March Biorenewables Café

Our next Café will happen on Tuesday March 11th, from 6:30-7:30pm at at the Railway Club on 579 Dunsmuir St.

Join us for a friendly discussion lead by our guest speaker on achieving sustainable waste management practices through production of biogas from municipal organic waste to fuel waste collection vehicles, a project in development at the City of Surrey.

Topic: Waste to Biogas: Renewable Fuel for the City of Surrey

Joining Surrey in 1991, Mr. Costanzo is responsible for the City’s Waste Management Planning, Policy and Operations as well as Engineering infrastructure maintenance and management. Rob leads Surrey’s sustainability goals related to waste diversion and reduced carbon emissions from its fleet operations. Current projects include overseeing the planning, implementation and operation of the City of Surrey’s Rethink Waste Collection Services as well as the development of Surrey’s future Organics Biogas Processing Facility that will produce a fuel-grade renewable natural gas from municipal organic waste that will be used to fuel the waste collection vehicles that collect waste at curbside.

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January Biorenewables Café

Post author By Valdeir Arantes
Post date January 7, 2014
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Dear friends of the Biorenwables Café,

Our next Café will happen on Tuesday January 21st, from 5:30-7pm at at the Railway Club on 579 Dunsmuir St.

In this café, Chris Bush will lead a friendly, informal discussion on sustainable agriculture through biorefineries. A sustainability pioneer from Abbotsford, Chris took the first anaerobic digester for agriculture in British Columbia from concept, through construction, to operation, and became the first in North America to deliver renewable natural gas from a farm to a utility grid.
His company has designed a four-product system that starts with dairy and poultry manure, produces biogas, ethanol, animal feed, and reusable water, all with zero waste. From the beginning it was understood that anaerobic digestion is only one piece of the solution, and he continues his work with a proposal for the BC Centre for BioResource Innovation.

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November Biorenewables Café

Post author By Valdeir Arantes
Post date November 7, 2013
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Dear friends of Biorenewables Cafe,

We are pleased to announce that Toby Reid, Founder and CEO of Solegear Bioplastics, a Vancouver-based advanced material start-up company has agreed to share his experience with us on technology development and starting a technology-based start-up company in Vancouver.

Title:

“Adventures in Advanced Materials: What You Need To Know About Developing And Commercializing Technologies In Today’s Environment”

Bio:

“Toby has been an entrepreneur for the past 8 years, as he started his first venture, Solegear Bioplastics, out of his basement in 2006. With a Bcomm from Dalhousie University, Reid researched, developed and is now commercializing the Company’s sustainable advanced materials technologies with a team of over 10 people and funding from both grant sources and venture capitalists. Prior to starting Solegear, Reid worked with a diverse range of companies, in sales & marketing roles: Naturally Advanced Technologies, Mountain Equipment Co-op and RBC Dominion Securities, to name a few. Toby was also part of the Mississippi community-based team that registered the most volunteers for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in April of 2010. Born and raised in Toronto, but a West Coast resident for the past 12 years, Toby lives with his wife and two young children in North Vancouver, BC, and considers being a Dad his best job of all.”

To learn more about Solegear Bioplastics and why we think it is a cool company, check out its website here.

Come join us next Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 6:30 pm at the Railway Club downtown Vancouver. Listen to Toby’s talk and network with fellow renewable enthusiasts over a glass of beer. It will be a great way to prolong your long weekend enjoyment.

And as always, stay in touch with us. Join our LinkedIn group.

See you there.

Biorenewables Cafe

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September Biorenewables Cafe

Post author By Valdeir Arantes
Post date August 9, 2013
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Dear friends of Biorenewables Cafe,

We hope everyone had a great summer!

Yes, Biorenewables Cafe is now back in full speed, and we are delighted to host Professor Gary Bull, the Professor of Forest Economics and Forest Policy at the University of British Columbia for our first Cafe after a long summer break.

Gary has kindly agreed to talk about “Carbon Policy in British Columbia: Background, Update, and Analysis” to give us an overview about this important policy and its impact to the province. An informal discussion will follow the talk.

We will host the Cafe on Thursday, September 19, 2013 at 6:30 pm at the Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver.

Please find below a short bio of Dr. Gary Bull

Dr. Gary Bull is a Professor of Forest Economics and Forest Policy at the University of British Columbia. Gary has spent most of his early career working in a consultative capacity with forest products companies, resource-based communities, various government agencies, and environmental non-governmental organizations. Internationally, he has worked with organizations such as the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome and the US Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. He has supervised research projects with CIFOR, World Bank, Shell Canada, Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF, Iisaak Forest Resources Ltd., Forest Trends and FAO.

Gary has a background in commerce as well as three degrees in Forestry, specializing in economics and policy. He has an interest in global forestry policy issues and is currently studying forest and timber markets in Asia and ecosystem services markets in Afghanistan, Canada, China, India, Mozambique and Uganda.

If you are unfamiliar with us, this is a short introduction about Biorenewables Cafe. We organize informal seminars to engage the public on topics related to bioenergy and clean technology. Come listen to a talk, ask questions, have beer and nachos, and network with fellow biorenewables enthusiasts. Join our Linked-In group and check out our blog!

See you there,

Biorenewables Cafe

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May Biorenewables Café

Dear friends of the Biorenewables Cafe,

We are excited to invite you to our next Biorenewables Cafe on May 27. This month’s talk will feature Dr. Alex Skyba, a post-doctoral fellow from the University of British Columbia. He will share with us his research on fungal degradation of woody biomass. This is an important step in the conversion of plant biomass into renewable energy and chemicals. We will have our talk at the Railway Club, next Monday, May 27 at 6:30 pm.

ABSTRACT

The degradation/ modification of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of renewable products such as biofuels typically requires the use of enzymes. Despite advances in molecular biology and protein engineering, our understanding of basic mechanisms involved in enzymatic degradation of biomass is still lacking. As a result, an important aspect of much of the research to-date has been to understand the limiting factors involved in the decreased hydrolysis rate as time progresses. These factors have been traditionally divided into two groups: those related to the biomass structures and those related to the mechanisms and interactions of the enzyme arsenal of the various wood degrading fungi. We have combined these approaches by using the recently available genome sequences of white- and brown-rot fungi that degrade major components of plant cell walls including cellulose, hemicellulose and recalcitrant lignin.

We also use poplar biomass with different properties to obtain expression profiles of wood degrading fungi and identifying a set of candidate genes necessary for lignocellulose conversion within different plant properties. These results will help guide our efforts to improve biomass conversion efficiency, the identifications of novel enzymes and targets for genetic improvement of key forestry feedstock.

BIO

Alex Skyba has received BSc in Chemical Technology and Engineering from Kiev Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine. During his traineeship in Martin-Luther University in Germany he has worked on the enzyme purification and immobilization techniques. Later he has got MSc degree in Industrial Biotechnology for his work on immobilization of phospholipase D on synthetic organic polymers.

After graduation he has worked in the Wood Protection department of the Swiss Research Laboratories (EMPA) in St.Gallen investigating wood modification with decay fungi in order to improve the treatability of wood preservatives.

PhD at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich on durability and physical properties of thermo-hydro-mechanically densified wood.

In 2009 he has joined Wood Molecular Biology Lab at UBC as a post-doctoral fellow. His current interests are in wood cell wall chemistry, fungal enzymes/co-factors discovery and interactions between wood decay fungi and woody substrates.

See you there!

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April Biorenewables Café

Dear friends of Biorenewables Cafe,

Our next Biorenewables Cafe will feature a talk by Darcy Quinn, director of Business Development, Nexterra Systems Corp. We will have the Cafe on Tuesday, April 9 at 6:30 pm at the Railway Club.

Abstract :

Technology won’t save us. The need to explore new business models in bioenergy

Conversion technology is the core to any bioenergy project. As a result there has been a global interest on developing bioenergy technologies that are slightly more efficient than their predecessors. Despite these efforts, commercial adoption of bioenergy lags other renewable energy sources because most projects cannot meet the financial requirements of investors. Can a new model that focuses on the whole product solution be implemented to reduce overall project costs and project risks? This presentation will explore the challenges new technologies face and some potential solutions.

Bio:

Darcy Quinn: Director, Business Development

Darcy Quinn is an experienced marketing and business development professional with focus on the conventional and renewable energy markets. As Director of Business Development at Nexterra Systems Corp., Darcy is responsible for developing and implementing strategy to commercialize new applications and fuels for Nexterra’s gasification technology. He also oversees marketing and communications group with responsibility for marketing strategy, lead generation, product marketing and market research. Prior to joining Nexterra in 2006, Darcy spent 3 years as consultant to the transportation industry promoting energy efficiency and renewable fuels in commercial fleets. Darcy has also worked in the oil and gas industry and spent a year working in China. Darcy has a Bachelors of Commerce degree from the University of Victoria.

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March Biorenewables Café

Dear friends of Biorenewables Cafe,

We are excited to announce that the Biorenewables Cafe will feature a talk by Dr. Sergios Karatzos, a post-doctoral fellow with the Forest Product Biotechnology/ Bioenergy Group at UBC. Sergios will share his perspective on drop in biofuels. We will have the Cafe on Monday, March 18 at 6:30 pm at the Railway Club.

Abstract:

“International Energy Agency activities in the biofuels field and a few words about the potential of advanced drop-in biofuels”

Task 39 is the division of the International Energy Agency that addresses biofuels and their commercialization progress. As the coordinator of Task 39 I have been fortunate to work on various projects that monitor the policy, market and technology activities in the biofuels area around the world. I will first give a background on the Task and it’s role in facilitating commercialization of conventional and emerging biofuel technologies. I will then share with you some learnings/outcomes from the Task’s most recent activities. Finally I will spend a few minutes talking about my work on drop-in biofuels which are energy-dense biofuels that are indistinguishable to petroleum fuels in their end use. I am looking forward to active audience participation and please come eager to ask questions!

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February Biorenewables Café

Post author By Valdeir Arantes
Post date January 17, 2013
1 Comment on February Biorenewables Café

Our next Biorenewables Cafe will be on February 12th at the Railway Club from 6:30pm-8:00pm. The speaker for the evening will be Paul Torriero, Chief Executive Office at Highbury Energy.

Abstract:

Producing a successful business from early stage has its challenges. The fact that your company is producing green, sustainable energy or products, puts you now into an interesting world. Along with the traditional issues faced by early stage companies, accessing government grants and services are becoming more competitive and is exacerbated by a government that is ranked last in the G8 for supporting green/sustainable companies. Developing skills to communicate the value of your company to conservative large industry partners and enticing risk avers investors is critical. I will attempt to discuss the current situation surrounding Highbury Energy Inc’s particular type of biomass to chemicals technology (gasification) and what we did to differentiate and separate ourselves technologically from the current gasification technologies out there and how this has been driven by fundamental economics. I will touch upon financing a business and briefly discuss our business strategy going forward. I will also include some of my learnings that I have picked up in my time in this sector.

Bio:

Paul Torriero – Chief Executive Officer
Paul Torriero has twenty years of experience in marketing, banking, project financing, hospitality service and tourism, and more than ten years of experience serving as a company executive. He has also founded several private companies that provide marketing and management services. read more

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January Biorenewables Café

Post author By Valdeir Arantes
Post date December 20, 2012
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Our first Biorenewables Cafe of 2013 will on Tuesday, January 8t at the Railway Club. Hope you can join us from 6-8 pm to network and learn about S2G Biochemical’s technology from MarK Kirby, CEO.

Abstract:

S2G Biochemicals Inc is a North Vancouver based cleantech startup with strong roots in the Pacific Northwest. With a proven and cost-effective technology developed over 20 years by Founder and CTO Terry Brix for the production of valuable industrial chemicals from renewable materials, a successful pilot plant operating near UBC and commercial projects in development, S2G is poised to capitalize on the growing demand for sustainable bio-chemicals. President & CEO Mark Kirby will outline the demand and market opportunity for biochemicals and in particular the “bio-glycols” that S2G produces. He will highlight the challenges that face small companies in commercializing capital-intensive technologies and S2G’s strategy to succeed.

Bio:

Mark Kirby, President and CEO of S2G Biochemicals Inc., has over 25 years experience in growing new technology businesses in a large and small company environment. He was Director, Corporate Development with high-tech company Ballard Power Systems, responsible for the $100 MM divestiture of Ballard’s automotive fuel cell business to Daimler and Ford, and for Ballard’s Residential Cogeneration business. Prior to that, Mark was VP Business Development with Vancouver clean energy start-up QuestAir Technologies, managing QuestAir’s business direction and strategic partnerships. Mark got his grounding in technology development, operations, new business development and business management over a 17-year career with Praxair Inc., a major multinational industrial chemicals company, with postings across North America. Mark has a BASc Eng (Hon) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia.