Green.org sat down with Bear Kaufmann, Chief Scientist of All Power Labs, to learn about how they are turning biomass into energy. All Power Labs is the global leader in small-scale gasification. They make biomass gasifier generators that are ready for everyday work, to serve real-world distributed-energy needs.
Tell us a little bit about you and your background:
Helped found All Power Labs in 2008. Studied environmental science and was interested in the potential of biomass and biochar systems to be carbon negative (removing carbon from the atmosphere, with the aid of photosynthesis). At the time energy was a big driver, so we focused on biomass generator systems. Now over many years, knowledge and interest in biochar and funding to support carbon removal has grown. Through these years working on our platforms of the Power Pallet and Chartainer I’ve always focused on supporting our team on science and technology. I often work directly with our engineers or help lead and drive the development projects forward.
Why do you think climate change and sustainability is such an important topic today?
We’re already seeing the impacts of climate change now. We need to make changes to avoid increasingly serious issues. We see that progress happening in various industries it just needs to happen even faster.
What do you envision your industry looking like 10 years from now?
We’ll have systems helping provide heat to processes that need it, while generating biochar for use in agricultural to improve farm productivity while sequestering carbon. The industry will have reached a scale that it provides a significant overall portion of carbon removal to help reverse our CO2 total emissions.
What can the average person do to make a difference?
Participate in developing and implementing solutions (employment, purchasing, supporting)