A Laramie start-up has earned a place in a national program designed to help accelerate startups in the carbon-removal industry.
High Plains Biochar has been accepted to the Air Miners Launchpad. The six-week program focuses on support for new businesses in carbon renewal. It’s aimed at companies or individuals interested in earning the $100 million XPrize contest, a competition funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation.
High Plains Biochar is one of 30 companies accepted into the program, and the first for the state of Wyoming.
Up Next – RELATED NEWS: – Becky G Talks New Album ‘Equinas,’ First Headlining Tour, Regional Mexican & More | Billboard News
Up Next – RELATED NEWS: – Becky G Talks New Album ‘Equinas,’ First Headlining Tour, Regional Mexican & More | Billboard News
close
Ad 1 of 1 (0:10)volume_off volume_up
Next
Stay
Auto (225p)
225p
360p
Subtitles Off
Subtitles EN
Up Next – RELATED NEWS: – Becky G Talks New Album ‘Equinas,’ First Headlining Tour, Regional Mexican &More | Billboard News
Becky G talks about why she wanted to name her new album ‘Equinas,’ her inspiration for stepping into regional Mexican music, collaborations with Peso Pluma, Gabito Ballesteros, and other regional Mexican artists, going on her first headlining tour, Mi Casa, Tu Casa, continuing to embrace her Mexican-American heritage and more.
Becky G Talks New Album ‘Equinas,’ First Headlining Tour, Regional Mexican & More | Billboard News
Arts and entertainment | 5:46
Lizzo Lawsuit Update, New Music From: *NSYNC, Jung Kook & Jack Harlow, XG & More | Billboard News
Arts and entertainment | 8:25
Billboard Explains: Peso Pluma & The Mexican Music Boom
Arts and entertainment | 3:13
Suspect in Tupac Shakur Murder Indicted By Grand Jury | Billboard News
Arts and entertainment | 0:57
Manuel Turizo Talks Big Move, Making Miami Home and How Traveling Inspires Music | Billboard
Arts and entertainment | 2:58
Mike Bahía & Greeicy Talk Growing a Career & Family Together | Billboard
Ars and entertainment | 3:00
Jung Kook & Jack Harlow’s Collab, Lisa’s New Record, NewJeans Makes History & More | Billboard News
Arts and entertainment | 7:27
Billboard Launches Playback Music Arcade Game | Billboard News
Arts and entertainment | 0:42
‘September’ Makes Splash on TikTok Billboard Top 50, ‘Wassup Gwayy Holds at No. 1 | Billboard News
Arts and entertainment | 1:26
Pop Culture Rewind: The Beatles’ Chart Achievements | Billboard News
Arts and entertainment | 1:54
Rowdy Yeatts, High Plains Biochar owner and inventor of a small-scale carbon-trapping stove, said the accelerator helps business owners prepare a business plan, write sales pitches, and promote their business to investors, Shark Tank style.
High Plains Biochar is a high-temperature heat exchanger that reduces materials such as woodchips to a small granules of charcoal. The process locks the carbon from the plants into the charcoal — carbon that would be released into the atmosphere if it were just burned as wase.
The biochar can be used to improve soil tilth and hold water. It will also hold carbon for thousands of years.
In High Plains stoves, woodchips go into a fuel hopper and get heated to about 1,500 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. They re-emerge as bits of charcoal, a half-inch long or shorter.
“We turn wood waste into charcoal, in very simple terms,” Yeatts said.
The High Plains stoves are small enough to be used in light industry or to heat and financially support a small cooperative. The operation pays for itself in heat, charcoal and carbon credits.
Yeatts holds the patents on the stoves.
High Plains Biochar occupies a collection of small buildings and gardens just south of Laramie. It shares the space with Skull Bracket, which sells metal holders for hunting trophy skulls ranging from small deer to bison.
Yeatts called the metal fabrication of Skull Bracket hangers his “day job.”
Yeatts began forming the biochar idea while working with the Nebraska Forest Service in on wood uilization.
“I was seeing these big piles of wood, get piled up and burning it all, and it seemed that this was not the best use of all this fantastic looking wood,” he said.
Yeatts, a Casper native, saw potential for the piles of waste wood in Wyoming.
“We’re obviously still not using all of the wood that is coming out of the Medicine Bow,” he said. “There’s still a whole bunch of dead beetle kill up there waiting to catch on fire.”
High Plains Biochar stoves will heat a greenhouse or a shop or dry lumber. But the true growth potential is overseas, where it could generate income from the charcoal and carbon credits. Carbon credits are trades that businesses buy to offset air-polluting practices.
“The market for carbon credits is voluntary and worldwide. It’s the direction that society is moving toward,” Yeatts explained.
“Say a company like Microsoft, they are flying all over the world, putting up buildings, using electricity, so they have this carbon footprint. They pledge to hve no carbon footprint. So for every ton of carbon they produce, they purchase an offset from somebody else. That’s where the carbon offsets come in. It has nothing to do with the U.S. government — that’s one of the big misconceptions,” he said.
Yeatt’s goal is to distribute High Plains stoves worldwide, with a focus on markets in India and Africa.
“Just the carbon-credit income would be a substantial income for them,” he said. “Our focus on the international market is the carbon credit income. In addition to providing heat, a typical Biochar unit will create three carbon credits worth $200-$300 apiece.”
The carbon credits are in addition to the heat produced by the stoves and the value of the biochar itself.
Marketing carbon credits has not been an easy sell for Yeatts in Wyoming, a state with a history linked to fossil fuels.
“There are some challenges in Wyoming. When you take the emotion out of it and just look at this as a business opportunity, no matter how you feel about it carbon credits are going to be a huge part of our life going forward. And you just have to accept that reality and focus on the business aspect of it. You don’t have to personally believe in all the science behind it,” he said. “Follow the money.”
To date, High Plains Biochar has sold seven units. The next generation stove is now in production in Nebraska with assembly set for Laramie.
“I started this in Chadron, but moved to Laramie to be close to the Front Range and enjoy the freedom and business opportunities of Wyoming. We do get a lot more opportunities than other states,” he said.
Yeatts also is working on ways to reduce the cost of the units, which currently sell for $40,000 and qualify for U.S. Department of Agriculture programs to help farmers and ranchers cost-share the stoves.
Ideally, he said, the until would cost around $12,000, with a three-year payback.
High Plains Biochar does not envision residential systems, but could foresee a cooperative purchase that provide heat for several houses as well as the carbon credits.
Though participation in the Air Miners and other business development programs has been helpful, Yeatts is ready to learn more.
“I get a lot of requests for international licensing of the technology and that’s not something I have a lot of experience in, so that’s one of the things I’m trying to find some help here in Wyoming — to try to take advantage of some of these federal programs for things like this,” he said.
He said Wyoming can continue to be a leader in energy production.
“Wyoming has a unique opportunity to literally shift gears from coal, oil and gas to wind, biomass and solar. I think there’s a natural transition,” Yeatts said.