Station One – BlueMorph Demonstration: Alex Farren, CEO & Co-Founder of BlueMorph will demo their UV sanitation technology that has been used by wineries like Dominus Estate and Cakebread Cellars to eliminate chemical and water use for tank cleaning.
Station Two – Water & Soil Health: Learn about the value of Irrigation Distribution Uniformity Assessments from Ben Mackie, Vineyard Program Manager for Napa Green; the interconnection of soil carbon and water retention and delivery from Adam Koeppel, CEO of Agrology; and how biochar can enhance soil moisture and plant availability from Eric Mayer, Co-Founder of Napachar.
Alex Farren is the Founder and Chief Science Officer of BlueMorph, Inc. a company that specializes in the design of UV light delivery systems to disinfect the interior surfaces of rooms, containers and other defined spaces. He has over 10 years experience and 19 patents issued on the delivery of targeted UVC dose to a surface irrespective of distance and material. He is now focused on the use of FarUV to provide people-friendly solutions that can be used more effectively in the battle against pathogenic microorganism. Ultraviolet light has the advantages of being a sustainable disinfectant, consuming no water and using no chemicals.
BlueMorph Waterless Tank Sanitation System is a UV-based technology that provides the first truly effective and environmentally-friendly method of sanitizing vessels and containers without the use of chemicals. Customers benefit from over 80% reduction in water use, no chemicals to dispose of, lower electricity use compared to other sanitizing methods and safe and easy operation.
For the past 15 years, Ben has been designing and implementing regenerative farming systems in a variety of ecosystems. A New Englander by birth, Ben fell in love with agriculture in the verdant fields of northern California in high school. Ever since, Ben has been managing farms, improving soils, and educating the next crop of environmental stewards with a holistic view of farming with natural systems. No stranger to Napa, he previously lived on Mt Veeder, where he fell in love with the oak and madrone woodlands and made friends with the local ravens. When Ben is not helping Napa’s vineyards adopt 21st century practices, he is spending time with his impressive wife and two wild children in the woods and on the water. Ben currently occupies Nisenan Territory and is a proud alumnus of Sterling College in Northeast Vermont, where he received a BA in Sustainable Agriculture.
Adam is the CEO of Agrology. His motivation is growing enough food to feed the future world. He focuses on discovering customer problems, developing products to solve them, and designing business models to get products in customers’ hands. While growing up in California, Adam enjoyed working in his godparents apple orchard and visiting many Central Valley farms during family road trips. He also experienced many droughts. This led to his interest in agricultural optimization and soil carbon respiration. Adam has experience at multiple early stage companies as well as corporate research labs. He worked on IoT connected cards at Capital One and has 48 granted patents and 69 applications under prosecution.
Wildfires, frost, heat waves, pest threats — know ahead of time.
Agrology lets you know when there’s a problem — now or in the near future. Our technology platform applies Machine Learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. We monitor and predict the issues coming your way. Then we alert you when there’s a problem. On your phone, anytime, anywhere. It’s the power to enable your team to take action and plan for the future.
Eric Mayer earned a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Stanford, where he studied fluid
mechanics and hydrology and published research improving global climate simulations. After
graduating and desiring to have a more immediate effect on the climate crisis, Eric went to
work for LightWater, a Florida-based biotechnology company focused on developing a scalable
algal bioreactor to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. However,
upon learning of biochar and the simple technologies already developed for its production, Eric
became convinced that biochar held more immediate promise for scalable carbon capture and
storage, and Napachar was born. Today, you can find Eric and Napachar in the vineyards and
forests of Napa and Sonoma, diverting pulled vines and forestry slash from burn piles to roast in
their customized biochar kilns, returning the carbon to the soil.
Founded in eastern Napa county, Napachar converts woody waste from vineyard management and local forest fuel-reduction efforts into Biochar, one of the richest soil amendments and most stable forms of carbon capture available today. By making our biochar with portable kilns on site in the vineyard and forest, we reduce transportation costs and emissions, and offer a drop-in replacement for burn-piling and wood-chipping. Additionally, our kilns are substantially lower polluting than these alternatives, producing almost no smoke and releasing a tenth of the CO2. Our resulting product is ready for incorporation into vineyard soil, where it serves as an organic tool for holding onto water and nutrients in the soil and encourages increased growth and crop production, with no detriment to the quality of the fruits.
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