Startup Profile: Encendia Biochar Hopes to Turn Organic Waste Feedstocks into Profit and Soil Amendment

October 17, 2011 | Nicholas Zeman

(Updated 10/26) Perceiving a need and market demand for healthier soils among farmers and gardeners, an interdisciplinary team of forestry, finance and engineering experts at Yale University formed a company to produce biochar, or customized charcoal derived from organic plant matter, for use as a soil amendment.

The company, Encendia Biochar, is currently developing a pilot production facility and is also rolling out a “prototype” biochar-based soil amendment that targets urban gardeners as well as home gardeners as customers. “We have product on-hand, inventory that’s been mixed and blended, and we’re bagging it now,” says Encendia’s CEO Michael Sesko. Read More