Bio Green Woods V

• Reduction of oil dependence by replacing it with more sustainable products: by contributing to the chemical industry with raw materials which are plant-sourced, through the use of biomass from forest waste (invasive species), BGW expects to capture its entire CO2 emissions, estimated at more than 8,000 tonnes.
• Promotion of green and innovative chemicals: Europe’s first third-generation bio-refinery, will carry out an innovative and sustainable production, with total use of forest biomass.
• Promotion of sustainable production and consumption:  in its bio-refinery, BGW will produce high-quality charcoal with a high rate of fixed carbon (environmentally friendly), a gas which can be converted into electrical energy, and sustainably sourced chemical liquids such as bio-oil (the production and consumption of these liquids assume neutral or very limited CO2 emissions, compared to fossil fuels).
• Fire prevention: the use of forest biomass for the conversion into electrical energy or others, duly regulated and directed, can contribute to reducing the fire risk since it will promote more sustainable forest management and consequently will change the structure of forest stands and landscape.
• Promotion of the forestry industry and its producers: the sustainable use of forest biomass creates conditions for improving the profitability of the forest. It increases its productivity and the value of the ligneous and non-ligneous materials resulting from the management of the forest stands. BGW will work with several local forest producers, enhancing the sustainable management of the forest and the quality of life of the producers.

Bio Green Woods is a pioneering company in Europe in what regards the complete use of materials and energy. Based in Alvaiázere, district of Leiria, where they launched, in May, the first European industrial wood bio-refining state-of-the-art plant. The company entered in business in 2005, at the time under the name of Mercancia, mainly focusing on the trading of goods such as hygiene products, charcoal, etc. Since February 2014, the company has bet on R&D, looking to develop a reactor for the production of Vegetable charcoal which would be more technologically advanced than the existing offering in the market. Over the years the team has grown to meet the needs of its research activity, both in the chemical and engineering areas. The company’s R&D activity was carried out through partnerships with renowned European institutes such as VTT (Finland), TNO (Holland) and INCAR (Spain). In 2019, with the transition to a form of publicly traded entity (S.A), and subsequent injections of capital and new partners joining, the name of the company changed to BGW, SA, adjusting to the new business concept that was intended to be implemented.

Currently the company has 25 employees and 17 on-the-job trainees.

BGW has developed a charcoal production unit, through wood distillation, a unique and innovative method in Europe. This is an exclusive and unprecedented technique that ensures more homogeneous and higher-quality products, through an environmentally clean process. The company also fully captures and transforms all gases resulting from the pyrolysis process, including condensable gases for the production of by-products (vegetable tar and pyroligneous acid), and non-condensable gases such as energy, ensuring zero waste.

The company has as partners:

• Geskasai, Lda – represented by BGW’s CEO, Sérgio Silva. With over 16 years of experience in international trade, Sergio was the forerunner of this project after several years of travel, studies and global analyses of the world market for charcoal, energy, bio-based chemicals and new materials. From the outset, Sérgio was the main and sole funder of the project, betting since the beginning on the development of industrial processes which would be materialized in the first large-scale industrial unit that is being built;
• BlueCrow Capital – Private equity fund focused on green and blue economy (forest and sea) investments;
• Pedro Ferreirinha – Mechanical engineer and responsible for the various patents submitted by the company during the R&D developments, Pedro has been part of the project since the creation of the concept, taking part in its development, from the design of the various prototypes ot the creation of the new industrial unit.