Arigna Group

I attended GLAS, Ireland’s trade event for the horticulture sector, with Fiona McAteer in my capacity as chairman of Arigna Group which has the largest operating biochar facility in Europe. We were there on the recommendation of Dr. Karen O’Hanlon of Probio Carbon https://lnkd.in/e43_qex3 who, with Paul Norris, has commenced a first of its kind trial of biochar in Ireland whereby playing fields have been treated with a combination of plant growth promoting bacteria, biochar and organic fertiliser with the aim of reducing chemical fertiliser and pesticide use. The details are in the Summer Issue of Horticulture Connected / Horticulture.Jobs. When biochar is used in this way, there is the additional benefit of sequestering carbon. A key takeaway from the day was dramatic change that is underway in this area of the economy caused by restrictions on the use of chemical fertilisers and the ban on harvesting peat which a key material in many of the soil treatment products produced by leading manufacturers. What was also interesting in the while there is a lot of research underway with regard to what might replace turf, the replacement materials have serious shortcomings relative to peat. While biochar is widely talked about, knowledge level was relatively low. There was an excellent panel discussion ‘Beyond Peat’ hosted by Anna Kavanagh which included contributions from Eoghan Corbett of Teagasc, William Bailey of Klasmann-Deilmann and Brendan Howell of ICL Growing Solutions UK & Ireland . A few key takeaways were that the industry is struggling to adapt to the ‘peat free’ world that is fast approaching and many producers are opting for ‘reduced peat’ products where the peat is sourced from the Baltic region, the trend toward ‘peat free’ in much more advanced in the UK than Ireland and seems to be driven by retailers rather than consumers, the replacement materials for peat have serious limitations ranging from competition from other industries (for example wood is in demand from construction and energy) to short shelf life (21 days in some cases). These issues were set against a backdrop of a projected 4X increase in demand for growing media by 2050. Biochar is being researched but the lack of sufficient quantities of high-quality biochar is a hindrance. Happily, Arigna Group can now help here. If you have an interest in learning more about the use of biochar in horticulture (including sports uses), please make contact. #GLAS2024 #biochar #carbonsequestration

I attended the Renewable Gas Forum Ireland (RGFI) Biomethane Conference last week in my capacity as Chairman of Arigna Fuels Ltd, one of the largest producers of biochar in the world. Key takeaways: Eamon Ryan said the biomethane strategy must fit in with overall land use strategy and environmental constraints. Grass production is our natural competitive advantage and is the natural feedstock. Harmen Dekker, CEO of the European Biogas Association said that the key factors for success of biomethane were the regulatory framework, biomethane production must be sustainable, access to and cost of access the gas grid, cross border trade of gas, ongoing R&D and how digestate and CO2 is dealt with. Denis Drennan of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association - ICMSA pointed out that there are many siloed govt departments that are setting targets for land use (forestry, nature restoration, food security etc.) and he expressed concern about policy coordination. The key points from the All Island Approach panel, moderated by Stephen Robb of the Irish Farmers Journal, consisted of Jonathan McFerran of DAERA, Redmond McEvoy of Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Karen Doyle of Gas Networks Ireland and Jonathan Martindale of Phoenix Energy were that ROI can learn lessons from the roll out of AD in NI namely turning the nutrients into digestate does not solve the excess nitrogen and phosphorus problem. Brugha Duffy has been working with Carbon AMS and is now ready to start construction on his 40GW AD plant in Meath. He believes that most farms could double grass output and he has worked with local farmers to ensure supply of feedstock and to take digestate. The panel on Ireland Next Steps, moderated by Paul Murphy of Climeaction, consisting of Paul Crosson of Teagasc, Noel Banville of Irish Farmers Association, Kieran Tarpey of Entrust Planning & Environmental and Eoin Brennan at Flogas Enterprise. Key issues that need to be addressed; upskilling of farmers to produce more grass and ability to use digestate as a part of the nitrate allowance. The Financing Master Class moderated by Gary Borland of KPMG Ireland with Tom O'Brien of Nephin Energy and Teresa O'Flynn of Ara Partners noted traditional lenders will not get involved until the concept is proven. The forthcoming RHO must support indigenous biomethane, there needs to be a large energy user policy to create a market, there is a concern that there is resistance to gas injection and critically the state agencies who will facilitate biomethane strategy must be adequately resourced. Philipp Lukas of Future Biogas said their strategy is to focus on large (160GW) plants for economies of scale and to sell to customers who are willing to pay full (unsubsidised) price for the gas. James Russell of Biocore Environmental outlined their strategy of producing biogas from waste for electricity and their plans to upgrade to biomethane and construct six additional plants by 2030.

It was great to participate in the Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) webinar on the National Biomethane Strategy, released last week by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on behalf of Government of Ireland. I was on a panel with Seán Finan and Noel Gavigan of Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA), Paddy Phelan of South East Energy Agency, Declan Murray of Biocore Environmental and Paul O'Brien of Irish Farmers Association. I was speaking in my capacity as Chairman of Arigna Fuels Ltd and Co Founding Director of LeBruin giving a funding / investment perspective on the strategy. My key takeaway points from the discussion: - IRBEA welcomes the national biomethane strategy as a key foundation stone for biomethane production in Ireland. - There was disappointment that the incentivisation focussed on capital grants rather than price/demand supports which is the approach taken in most other countries. - A key component of the biomethane strategy is the Renewable Heat Obligation (RHO) as this will give some visibility on price and until the details are made public later this year, progress is stalled. - The nature of investment funding is significantly impacted by the decision not to offer price/demand supports as there is higher risk in projects. Funding will be more expensive and harder to find. Relatedly as the scheme stands, it is unlikely that the smaller plants will get external funding. - Given the reliance of biomethane production on silage as feedstock, the farming community needs to be involved and treated fairly if it is to become engaged. Please fell free to reach out to me directly to discuss anything in further detail.

I attended the Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition with Fiona McAteer and had the opportunity to tell the Arigna Fuels Ltd story. Arigna Fuels Ltd has now one of the largest biochar production facilities in the world, right here in Ireland. Currently we are producing high quality biochar for the following: as a sustainable domestic and industrial biofuel, as an additive to anaerobic digestion to increase gas yields by up to 30%, as a key ingredient in organic fertilisers replacing chemical fertilisers to replace CO2 intensive inputs in building materials reducing their carbon footprint.

In this week's Net Hero Podcast: Net Hero Podcast – A wonderfuel way to clean up things! Net Hero subscriber Robert Johnson got in touch to tell an intriguing story about burning cleaner fuels in rural areas. Arigna Fuels Ltd Watch the full episode: https://lnkd.in/ePRmfSY3 #podcast #biochar #biofuels #greenfuels #cleanfuels #climatechange #climatecrisis #climateaction #climatesolutions

On April 17th, we were at the Farming Renewable Energy industry summit held in Portlaoise on behalf of Arigna Fuels Ltd which is one of the largest producers of biochar for biofuel and also as an additive for increasing the yield of biomethane plants. A large portion of the conference was focused on the production of biomethane via Anaerobic Digestion as the final version of the National Biomethane Strategy is due soon. In the session on the state of the intersection between the energy and agricultural sectors with Aoife Foley of The University of Manchester, Barry Caslin of Teagasc, Noel Cunniffe of Wind Energy Ireland and Paddy Phelan of South East Energy Agency, the key takeaways were that solar farms have moved to industrial scale and that 200 acres is the min size for a solar farm to achieve economies of scale and proximity to a substation is key. It was noted that grass is the best feedstock for biomethane plants and there was a good discussion about the implications of using large quantities of silage for biomethane production. In the second session with Maurice Deasy of Teagasc, Catherine Sheridan of Sheridan Advisory Services, Michael Hayden of Maynooth University and Mel Gavin of Atlantic Technological University, the panel explored the implications of industrial scale biomethane plants for the farming community. It was put forward that because energy pays more that food production, farmers may switch to producing feedstock crops with implications for food security and silage prices. In the fireside chat with Michael Quirk, a farmer who has walked the talk in both wind and solar, there was sobering assessment of the opportunities and challenges for farmers with regard to biomethane. His view was that the biomethane industry will not develop in the same way as solar and wind. Farmers will not be small scale producers of biomethane as Anaerobic Digestion will only be done at scale and farmers will be feedstock suppliers. In the sessions moderated by Philip Connolly of KPMG with Padraig Fleming of Gas Networks Ireland, David McKee of Bio Capital, Graeme Lochhead of Nephin Energy Limited and Justin Brown of Power Capital Renewable Energy it was pointed out that Ireland would need to have 140 industrial scale biomethane plants to achieve its renewable gas targets. Slurry as a feed stock is not an option because there is only 2 to 4 months of supply as cattle are not housed indoors for the whole year (as they are in Denmark which produces large quantities of high-quality slurry all year round). The likely business model is that large AD plants will partner with farmers to secure supply of agricultural waste residues and feed crops (most likely grass) but that supply has to be very local to make sense. At a cost of €16m to build a 40GW AD plant, farmers are not going to be the plant owners. The best option is for farmers to group together and do collective agreements with the plant owners.

My third and final post about presentations I attended at US Biochar Initiative. I'd be grateful if you would take this opportunity to follow Arigna Fuels Ltd on their biochar journey. 1.      Myles Gray, P.E. and Wendy Lu Maxwell-Barton gave a preview of the Biochar Industry Survey results. Essential reading for industry participants and its all covered here: https://lnkd.in/e63hQtjj 2.     Hansjörg Lerchenmüller of Carbonfuture gave an overview of the biochar industry in Europe. Installed capacity is circa 100k mt in Europe at end 2023 and biochar is mainly being produced for the energy and heat produced by the process with less emphasis on the use of the char itself (as per my reading). The fastest growth in use is in construction materials which is very interesting and contrasts with the findings of the USBI Industry Survey which identified agriculture as the biggest growth opportunity. 3.      Steve Peterson of USDA gave a very detailed but understandable presentation of the replacement of carbon black with biochar in rubber composite materials. His research showed some very promising results; biochar can replace 40-50% carbon black with similar or better strength and elongation, but composite stiffness still needs improvement. He then discussed the now familiar issue/problem, that biochar has to compete with existing uses; in this case carbon back and biochar is currently 2x the cost of carbon black. Scale will reduce costs but without adoption, it’s hard to scale. 4.      Yván David Hernández Charpak gave a very technical and energized presentation on his work on biochar-plastic composite development at Rochester Institute of Technology. An incredibly promising area of research and we got to handle some of the composite bags produced. 5.      The last presentation I attended showed what one advanced future use might be for biochar. Daniel Mulqueen of Climate Robotics demonstrated how they were using plant-based carbons to replace activated carbon and carbon black. The pluses are the high prices of existing activated carbon and carbon black and the challenges are achieving the technical specifications of the different types of those products. #biochar #CSRD #netzero #Biochar2024 #biofuel #arignafuels #biocoal