Who we are.
Highbury Energy Inc. is an innovative renewable energy technology company whose mission is to competitively produce negative carbon intensity fuels from waste biomass. Our advanced, patented technology was designed at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and has proven effective during six years of trials at a pilot plant located on UBC campus.
One of our current projects is the production of renewable fuel gas (RFG) from waste biomass at the pulp mill of a large British Columbia forest company. The RFG, with an ultra-low Carbon Index (CI) of 4, is intended for use in the company’s lime kiln and will displace 700,000 GJ of CI 54 natural gas, saving 45,000 tonnes a year of CO2 – equivalent to taking 9800 cars off the road.
Another project involves producing renewable transportation fuels from waste biomass collected under a sustainable forest licence and partnered with a First Nations consortium in the province of Ontario, Canada. The goal is to produce 20 million litres per annum of renewable transportation fuels including renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel with a CI of 7.8, saving 54,000 tonnes per annum of CO2 – equivalent to the carbon output of almost 12,000 cars a year without carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Upgrading our renewable fuel gas (RFG) into liquid fuels is made possible through our master agreement with a leading fuel technologies firm and its Fischer-Tropsch conversion technology.
Our technology.
Highbury’s disruptive core technology is based on an advanced dual-fluidized-bed steam gasifier that generates a renewable high-grade medium-BTU renewable fuel gas (RFG) from a wide variety of biomass feedstocks and without the need for supplemental oxygen. Highbury’s technology is backed by:
14 years of R&D, lab and pilot plant development, testing, and operating experience
A deep intellectual property portfolio including three patents and 19 proprietary white papers
An acclaimed technical team of gasification and thermochemical experts
The RFG is nitrogen-free, negative or net-zero carbon-intensity, and composed of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Its calorific strength (LHV 12 MJ/M3) is nearly triple that of first-generation gasifiers. This H2/CO output is additionally an ideal base for liquid transportation fuels, renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), green hydrogen, renewable natural gas (RNG) or synthetic chemicals.
Our team.
Len Bykowski
CEO
An international C-Level business generalist with a primary focus in the agriculture, forestry and bio-based renewable energy sectors, Len is an expert in creating business models, team building, innovative strategic planning, acquisitions and integration, and in domestic and international sales and marketing. He is past President of Mascoma Canada, CEO of Bioproducts Alberta, President and CEO of the BC Wine Institute, and past President and CEO of Money’s Mushrooms, a $250 million food company.
Dr. A. Paul Watkinson
Co-Founder and CTO
Dr. Watkinson is Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia, and former department head. He holds a B.Eng. degree in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University, and M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from UBC. Dr. Watkinson has won awards for his research and has published numerous articles in scientific journals on conversion of coal, coke, shale and biomass into gaseous and liquid fuels. He is a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada.
Dr. Yonghua Li
Senior Research Engineer
Dr. Li is a chemical engineer with over 25 years of experience in the energy technologies including gasification and the processing, production, storage and transportation of gas. He received his Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from East China University of Science and Technology, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Queensland, Australia, and has worked at the National Risk Management Research Lab of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
John A. Kuehne
CFO
M.Mgmt., CPA, CA, John is past president and founder of SmallCap Corporate Partners Inc., a successful management consulting firm that advised micro-cap and small-cap public companies on corporate governance, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and investor communications. He was Chief Financial Officer of Doman Industries, a Canadian forest products company with assets in excess of $1 billion. His M.Mgmt. is from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Dr. Wei Wang
Research Engineer
Dr. Wang is a chemical engineer with backgrounds in both fossil fuels and renewable energy including heat exchanger and furnace fouling, petroleum upgrading (FCC, hydroprocessing and catalysis) and biofuels. He also has experience in patent examination in the oil and gas sector. He holds a Ph.D. from UBC.