BEC founders include one of the world's preeminent experts on biomass gasification and our CEO has been in biochar for over five years. We understand the full spectrum of thermal conversion approaches from torrefaction, pyrolysis, updraft and downdraft gasification to fluidized beds and fast pyrolysis. BEC is the first to apply low-cost direct contact pyrolysis technology to biochar production. New patent filings leverage decades of experience to create core intellectual property for producing biochar.
KEY PRINCIPALS
Jim Fournier - CEO, is an award-winning industrial designer with a background in physical science. Jim left MIT to found a design firm, an international consumer products design and manufacturing company that he owned and operated for 10 years. He then developed 3D software as a Geometry Partner with SGI; co-founded Planetwork, a non-profit convening conferences on global ecology and information technology; and raised capital for Eprida, a biochar energy startup. Jim co-founded BEC in 2006.
Tom Reed - Chief Scientist, has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Tom pioneered pressure swing absorption and plasma torch technology at Linde Division of Union Carbide. He was the first to advocate methanol fuel in 1973 article in Science, while a researcher at MIT. Tom was the lead researcher on biomass gasification at SERI (Solar Energy Research Institute, now NREL) and at Colorado School of Mines. Mr. Reed holds 15 patents and has authored or edited dozens of seminal books on biomass gasification at Biomass Energy Foundation.
Jeff Burkland - CFO has over 15 years of business experience in finance, operations, marketing and technology management. He has provided strategic and tactical financial support; business plan development; market research and sales and marketing strategy; operational process improvement for early-stage and high-growth companies; and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts for client companies of all sizes. Jeff graduated with honors in electrical engineering and economics at Duke University; and studied business at Harvard and international finance at Oxford University.
INFRASTRUCTURE
BEC's offices and shop are based in a modern 10,000 sq ft facility in Golden Colorado. Our staff has extensive experience in the design, fabrication and testing of biochar production equipment. The company also has a test-site on a farm a mile up the road in rural Jefferson County.