Amata Green’s Mission
Solve air pollution problems in Spain
On-farm kilns and gasifiers are smokeless and make biochar in the process
contributing factors
In Spain, the olive harvest begins around October/November and ends in January or February. During harvest, some tree branches are damaged and need to be removed. After harvest, trees are trimmed to optimize next year’s blooms. Often there are massive amounts of tree branches. Farmers are required by law to remove tree branches /debris from their land, but it is expensive to chip or mulch the branches. Most of the time, the trees are burned as a means of disposal.
THE SOLUTION: Make biochar out of these tree branches. This can be done either on-farm in kilns or Amata Green can pyrolyze the branches in closed-system pyrolysis reactors.
more contributing factors
In addition to agricultural burning in the fields, olive oil mill waste (alperujo) is sent to pomace factories who use chemical treatments on the waste and then burn it. Most of these factories are not compliant with environmental laws on air pollution.
THE SOLUTION: Make biochar from the olive mill waste. Amata Green has collaborations with several olive mills to accept their olive mill (alperujo) waste and turn it into biochar. This process uses clean tech and bypasses those pollution-emitting pomace factories. Moreover, turning this waste in biochar sequesters carbon and binds that carbon for 1000 years!
even more contributing factors
Many homes in rural parts of Spain do not have heating and rely on either individual electric room heaters or a fireplace to heat the home. With electricity costs high, a fireplace is a low cost way to keep a household warm.
THE SOLUTION: Make biochar in the fireplace. While it would not be ethical to prevent people from warming their homes, at Amata Green we are teaching people how they can use their fireplace to make biochar and even produce more heat in the process.