Highbury Energy

An endless source of renewable, low carbon intensity (LCI) fuel.

A Warming World

A solution to the greatest threat facing our planet today.

Human activity is pumping 31 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. Global warming is causing oceans to rise, threatening animal species with extinction, causing droughts and other weather-related disasters and agricultural losses worldwide.  

On October 8, 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that society would have to enact “unprecedented” changes to how it consumes energy, travels and builds to meet a lower global warming target or it risks increases in heat waves, flood-causing storms and drought in some regions, as well as loss of species.

And yet our modern civilization needs fuel and electricity or our economy will grind to a halt. Solar and wind power help in some places, but don’t adequately address the growing demand for diesel fuel, jet fuel, renewable natural gas or electricity in areas where they’re not feasible.

Highbury Energy has an answer: breakthrough technology for the generation of renewable, low carbon intensity (LCI) fuels suitable for existing industrial and transportation infrastructures.

 

Scientists around the world agree that carbon levels are rising at an unprecedented rate due to the burning of fossil fuels for transportation, industry and heating and cooling of homes and offices.

The move to energy from biomass

Why biomass?

Biofuels already account for 10% of energy generated globally1, compared to just 4% for all renewables combined (hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and tidal). In Sweden, 50% of energy comes from biofuels. Given the world’s growing need and population, energy generation from biomass is likely to rise significantly.

Rising demand from industry for low carbon fuels.

Manufacturing, transportation, agriculture – virtually all industries are under pressure to dramatically lower their carbon footprints. Refineries, for example, are confronted by stringently mandated reductions in the carbon footprint of transportation fuels, and desperate to achieve a much lower Carbon Index (CI) for their products. Compared to (approximately) 15-20 for recycled cooking oils, 50 for corn-derived ethanol and 100 for conventional fossil fuels, the Carbon Index of fully fungible, refinery-ready Fischer-Tropsch liquids derived from Highbury’s process is an ultra-low (approx) 5.0. Refiners will need and want our products. Another sector being especially targeted is airlines. Renewable jet fuel from biomass will command premium prices to help cut carbon emissions.

Paris accord forcing adoption of biomass energy.

The Paris Accord calls on nations and corporations to constrain global warming to no more than 2º Celsius. One company, Royal Dutch Shell, used 9 billion litres of biofuel in 2017, and has announced it will aggressively invest in new sources of biofuel to begin replacing fossil fuels2. Others are bound to follow.

Energy for a growing world.

The world’s population is expected to increase from 7 billion to 10 billion3, and energy demand from 570 to 1,000 exajoules4, but CO2 emissions must decline at the same time.

Other renewables are not always feasible.

Not all geographical areas can benefit from solar, wind, tidal or geothermal power. Highbury’s Bia Generator works wherever there’s a ready source of biomass – pulp mills, sawmills, food processors, etc.

1. International Energy Agency – World Energy Outlook, 2017

2. Energy Transition Report, Royal Dutch Shell, 2018

3. UN World Population Projection 

4. International Energy Agency – World Energy Outlook, 2017

An end to waste

What if waste wasn’t waste?

Humanity produces 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste every year, increasing to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025 (source: World Bank). In the US, only 7% of that waste is converted to fuel. At Highbury, we want cities, factories, transportation companies, forest companies, farms and other sectors to begin looking at organic waste (including sewage and municipal waste) as an asset, not a liability.

Scientifically proven to work.

Although gasification is a well-established industrial technology for coal – producing syngas for heat, power, or chemicals, with more than 800 coal gasifiers operating worldwide – biomass gasification is still new, with only about 50 smaller units operating for heat and power. Even rarer is indirect (dual-bed) gasification, under development in only a very few places. Highbury Energy Inc. is the result of pioneering research into, and development of, dual-bed biomass gasification at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, where a team working with UBC’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has designed and built a very advanced prototype in the UBC Pulp and Paper Centre. The team is led by Dr. Paul Watkinson, a globally recognized expert in gasification and heat transfer technologies and former Head of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UBC, and Dr. Yonghua Li, Senior Engineer. Dr. Watkinson is now Chief Technical Officer of Highbury Energy Inc., and Dr. Li is Highbury’s Senior Research Engineer.

An endless source of renewable energy.

More than ever, our growing population needs an efficient, eco-friendly and affordable source of power that also eliminates waste. Highbury’s gasification technology replaces needless, pollution-causing waste burning with efficient, dependable power production. Even remote communities off the grid can produce clean energy simply by redirecting their organic waste as feed for biofuels.