Carbo Culture | Energy Seminar - October 28, 2019

According to the UN, we have less than 60 harvests left until we have depleted all our soils. Topsoil feeds 95% of humanity, and we are losing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of it annually. Converting carbon to a solid, stable form keeps it from escaping back into the atmosphere for hundreds of years. By converting any biomass waste in any location, we can rapidly start to redirect millions of tons of carbon out of the atmosphere and put it to use in the soil, where it can help prevent soil from degrading, foster natural soil micro-organisms and help prevent the loss of livelihoods.

Carbo Culture has developed a novel technology for biomass conversion to high purity biocarbons. The resulting biocarbons are high in surface area and conductivity, and the technology itself is modular and able to process a multiple types of lignocellulose waste.

Speaker bios:

Christopher Carstens is the CTO and co-founder of Carbo Culture. He is a hands on mechanical engineer and inventor who is driven by a passion for finding simple solutions to seemingly complex problems. His carbon journey began with work on oxy-fuel combustion cycles; and has ranged from magnesiothermic production of graphene from CO2 to the application of synthetic gas hydrates for capturing and transporting associated gas. Chris chose to fully commit to biochar after exploring the breadth of potential climate solutions because of its simplicity, scalability and ability to catalyse positive carbon feedback loops. He co-founded Carbo Culture out of the recognition that humans have transformed the world’s arable land with modern agriculture, and that we must usher in a new era of land management for maximum carbon drawdown. Chris is a member of the US DOE’s Methane Hydrate Advisory Committee and an alumni of UC Berkeley (BS ME), Singularity University (GSP13) and StartX.

Henrietta Kekäläinen is the CEO and co-founder of Carbo Culture. Originally from Finland, Henrietta speaks five languages and has lived in four countries. Henrietta is recognised as a World Economic Forum ‘Global Shaper’ and from 2016-2018 she was a board member of a publicly traded electronics company (Nasdaq omx Hel: YEINT). She was the youngest person in the country to have a non-family tied seat in a company on the stock exchange.

Her prior experience includes growing two organisations in edtech: helping to katapult Rails Girls to global scale with over 300+ events on all continents, and founding Mehackit.org, a creative technology company. She studied economics and international relations at the Vienna University of Business and Economics and at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, where she brought Prof. Steve Blank to visit with STVP in 2011. She’s an alumna of Aalto Entrepreneurship Society, Singularity University and StartX.

She has advised the Finnish government on their entrepreneurship strategy and spoken alongside Nobel laureates on several occasions. She has been involved in the scouts for most of her life and is a certified Sea Captain.