For more than a year, Soledad-based Sitos Group has operated a pilot program at ReGen Monterey’s waste management facility in Marina, transforming wood waste and other organic materials into a usable product while removing carbon that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere.
The end product is biochar, a charcoal-like substance that results from a slow pyrolysis process that sequesters carbon and can be used to improve soil health.
Sitos Group co-founder and CEO Mayo Ryan says the goal of the pilot program is not only to perfect the use of the pyrolysis machine, but also show that such a process is commercially viable.
In late October, Sitos Group announced its first commercial biochar facility with Treehouse California Almonds in Delano. The $9 million, 25,000-square-foot facility, expected to go online by the end of 2025, will process 6,000 pounds of almond shell feedstock per hour.
For every ton of biochar put in farmland soil, 2.5 tons of CO2 is prevented from entering the atmosphere, according to Ryan.
Sitos Group was co-founded by Mayo, who has experience in agribusiness firms, and Steve McIntyre, owner of vineyard management company Monterey Pacific, which manages 20,000 acres of vineyards across the state, including in Monterey County.
The pilot program at ReGen will end in July 2025, and is estimated to absorb 20,000 tons of carbon through its lifecycle.
“We’ve accomplished many of our goals, which is to improve the process so we get the very best biochar quality we can out of the machine,” Mayo says. “We’re very grateful we have this partnership with ReGen. We’ve learned so much.”