4 minutes with… Enrique Arrieta-Noguera, CEO, Ambientronika

June 2, 2015 |

2dda77aTell us about your company and it’s role in the Advanced Bioeconomy.

We are a renewable energy integration firm, and we are working in the project “4T-FF”, 4 trees species for fuel & food, where we will produce 100% biodiesel plus food in the form of forage, milk and meat.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

We will develop our proof of concept part of our project, where we will plant 25 hectares of 4 trees species that can survive in degraded terrain with very small amounts of water and nutrients, we will build a pilot plant to get vegetable oil from theses trees to be uses as a carbon negative fuel for agricultural machinery for planting and harvesting and to run pumps for increase productivity of the trees. Our business model will be F2F, from Farmer to Farmer, we will deliver our carbon-negative fuel to neighbor farmers and we will give them credit proportional to their milk and meat production. Then we will show case our project to expand into industrial scale, where we plan to develop 1000 plants, each served with 500 hectares of our 4 trees plantations, within the following 25 years in Colombia. Some of the production of areas located close to sea ports would be directed to exports also. Also we will produce a high quality edible oil and milk and meat.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?  

Develop new projects in degraded, marginal terrains, producing carbon-negative bio-fuels and food for under-served people.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change? 

Political instability, cost of feedstock, slow-paced technology

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you?  

Contribute to minimizing global warming and climate change and producing food for under-served people.

Where are you from? 

I am from Bogotá, Colombia, I spent part of my childhood and early teenage in Rome, Italy.

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway?

I am Chemical Engineer from Universidad de America in Bogota, I liked chemistry a lot from high school and I wanted to learn how to apply chemical processes to farms.

Who do you consider your mentors – could be personal, business, or just people you have read about and admire. What have you learned from them?

I learn t a lot from an old magazine called “Mother Earth”. I also learn t a lot from a German friend, Dr. Robert Dilger that works for the German cooperation agency, GIZ and from fellows of a company called c-Fella, located in Costa Rica.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?  

I have suffered a lot during severe droughts and floods, and I decided to study how mother nature works, and do something to minimize global warming and climate change.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry?

I like music, Colombian folklore, and I play guitar and accordion.

What are 3 books you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a desert island

The Bible, Banker to the poor, Muhamed Yunus and the New paradigm for financial markets, George Soros

What books or articles are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?  

Colorado Spring Notes, 1999-1900, Nikola Tesla, Global Investment in Clean Energy, the Economist, Apr 24th, 2014, The Economics of Load Defection, Rocky Mountains Institute, RMI Outlet, Apr 7th, 2015.

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?

Rome, Italy

Category: Million Minds

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