Bernie del Campo walks to the edge of the stubbled cornfield and unties a large plastic bag, which at first glance appears to contain compost or topsoil.

“Here’s the result of all our magic,” del Campo says with a grin, opening a bag containing the biochar product that his company, Advanced Renewable Technologies International Inc. (ARTi) has developed. The deceptively simple-looking black spongy material – made from biomass such as corn stover – is really a triple-threat player. The company’s primary goal is to develop an improved filter medium for removing many types of contaminants from water at less cost than conventional methods.

As an added ecological benefit, the process used to create the biochar from crop waste or other biomass keeps the carbon in it locked up, or sequestered, rather than releasing it into the amtosphere as carbon dioxide. The biochar can also be used as a soil additive  to improve yields in poor soils. 

The startup company – which began at Iowa State University – is among five Midwestern student-run startup companies that will compete this month at the Clean Energy Challenge Competition in Chicago for a chance to win $50,000 or more in grants. ARTi has also just applied for $1 million in commercialization funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. 

In the past year, the company has used a $150,000 Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the U.S. Department of Energy grant to prove that the biochar can serve as an effective water filtration medium.

Diverse team

A Uruguay native who is working toward a doctorate in mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, del Campo co-founded ARTi two years ago with three others at ISU: Matt Kieffer, who will receive  a master’s degree in mechanical engineering this summer;  Juan Proano, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering; and Edson Vendrusculo, who has a doctorate in electrical engineering. 

In total, about 30 ISU students in a host of specialties are working on ARTi’s projects, said Kieffer, ARTi’s vice president. The students involved in ARTi hail from seven countries, including Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Malaysia and Vietnam as well as the United States. 

“It’s great; it’s an absolutely unbelievable atmosphere and it’s a lot of fun,” Kieffer said. “We have postdoctorates, Ph.D. candidates, people who have graduated with business degrees, people who are studying law, economics. We have undergraduates in engineering, business and economics. So we have an unbelievable group of people who are fun to work with. They’re excited, and they’re passionate about developing this company.” 

“Being around the university is invaluable,” Kieffer added. “We all feed off one another. Just one mechanical engineer couldn’t do this; just one electrical engineer couldn’t do this.” 

A ‘fairly simple’ process 

Produced through a process known as pyrolysis, biochar is made by heating biomass materials such as corn stover or other crop waste to very high temperatures without oxygen. The resulting material is a highly porous, absorbent substance that ARTi hopes will form the basis for a highly effective water filtration system that the company can engineer to remove the specific contaminants from any given waste stream. 

As part of the pyrolysis process, the combustible gas produced is used to produce the necessary intense heat of about 2,500 degrees. 

“We can essentially fuel our process with the energy that’s coming off of the biomass,” Kieffer said. “So it’s actually a fairly simple process, but we’ve come up with a couple of unique ways to process it and make the system more efficient and more reliable.” 

Del Campo said ARTi’s biochar-based water filtration system could provide a lower-cost alternative to conventional ion exchange membranes that are used in many water filtration systems. Those conventional membranes clog easily and must be changed out when contaminants inactivate them. The biochar will be compressed into into small bars that will act as electrodes and trap contaminants through an ionization process. 

“There are lots of industries today that are releasing toxic materials into streams, so we’re trying to replace the system that they have, or if we can have this system in place after their pre-treatment system, that can significantly help,” del Campo said. 

Down on the farm 

Working from a farm near Prairie City where the company has research space, ARTi has been tweaking its process for making biochar. The company’s strategy is to commercialize some of the low-hanging fruit of the pyrolysis process, with the eventual goal of moving into products that utilize the bio-oils that are produced from the process. 

At that farm on the western edge of Jasper County, ARTi maintains a testing laboratory and has both a bench-scale and larger-scale reactor for making the biochar. ARTi’s scientists had initially worked with the farm’s ownersto assist him in developing a biofuel operation to produce their own fuel. 

“We provided some background information and some technical support on how to put the process together,” Kieffer said. “As we were chatting, they became interested in the projects we were doing, particularly in biochar. So the relationship slowly grew; they provided us facilities and equipment and we’ve built a good relationship. The farmer here, Dan Wilson, is a great mentor. It’s been great to have his knowledge and direction to guide us through these projects, because we don’t all have that business experience in how to grow a company.” 

One of ARTi’s initial operations involved filtering waste cooking oils from Greater Des Moines restaurants, which the company has since expanded to an operation that processes waste oil from a seven-state region. Last year ARTi processed more than 1 million gallons and expects to handle 1.5 million gallons this year, in an operation that helps in part to keep growing its biochar capabilities.  

Developing the capacity to turn out large quantities of biochar is the company’s next big challenge, Kieffer said. 

“The (biochar) product can do so many things, but unless you have the volume, there’s not much there,” he said. “So when we reach that commercial scale, that’s our goal, to be able to provide large volumes of product to people that can integrate it into their systems.” 

The company is nearing the point where it could begin seeking financial support from investors, Kieffer said: ”So we are open to collaborations and are open to talking with people who are interested.”

Biochar a ‘novel technology’ for water treatment 

Advanced Renewable Technologies International Inc. is one of a number of companies across the country working to commercialize applications for biochar, said David Laird, an agronomy professor at Iowa State University who has conducted research on biochar’s potential agricultural uses. 

“I think it’s a novel technology,” said Laird of ARTi’s proposal to use biochar for water filtration (he sits on del Campo’s Ph.D. committee). “I haven’t seen the data yet to tell if it will work; I think it’s an intriguing idea.” 

Companies such as ARTi are taking a logical approach in how they’re approaching the market, he said.

“As the industry scales up, in the early stages the only rational thing to do is to target high-value products,” he said. “Then as those markets become swamped, bulk products like transportation fuels become more feasible. … In the future, I see co-production of value-added products and biochar.” 

Del Campo said that as a soil amendment, ARTi’s biochar will make more economic sense in regions with poorer soils, rather than in Iowa. 

Laird agrees with that assessment. 

“If you tried to look at the economic impact for a typical corn or soybean farmer in Iowa, it’s not large,” he said. “We’ve estimated maybe $50 to $200 a ton is the most a farmer could pay and recoup the costs with increased yields, and right now the current cost of char is much higher than that.” Laird said the price per ton of biochar currently can range from $200 to $2,000 when sold in 50-pound bags. 

“What we do know is that the presence of char will increase the water holding capacity of the soil, and the nutrient holding capacity,” Laird said. “In theory, that should increase efficiency. A farmer would be able to put on the same amount of fertiilizer and obtain a higher yield.” 

Overall, the pyrolysis process is an excellent model for making high-value products, Laird said. 

“You’re making products; you’re making money; and you’re pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. So that’s a really exciting paradigm shift.”

International appeal 

Two years ago, Bernie del Campo and several others in the company traveled to Nicaragua, where they built and tested a small bioreactor to produce biochar for use in soil amendment. The positive reaction by the Nicaraguan farmers to the product helped confirm the value of the company’s work with biochar. 

“We worked with small farmers down there to implement it in their crops, get higher yields and generate more income,” del Campo said. “That kind of got our feet on the ground and got us going. We generated a lot of interest while we there in Nicaragua.” 

ARTi’s biochar process has also gotten the attention of a Canadian lumber company, which recently purchased a biochar reactor from ARTi to produce its own biochar from the dozens of tons of sawdust its mill produces weekly. 

“They want to turn that sawdust into something more valuable,” del Campo said. “They have a big forestry operation, so they will use it in that (to enrich the soil).” 

Though the “international” in ARTi’s name might currently reflect the team’s diverse makeup, it also points to the company’s potential to grow in a number of countries, particularly in rural economies. 

“When you think about agriculture in Uruguay, it could be toned down to a very simple project that could be implemented,” del Campo said.