Writing to you from the Philippines, we’re entering the most exciting phase of this collaboration. The construction of 4 Lytefire 5 units is complete, and now we’re testing, prototyping and training end users with the new applications we’ve built. I thought this would be a good time to share more about our partner in this endeavour: Dr. Dale Llentic, founder of CarbonCycle Processing Inc.
Dale is the eldest of 2 siblings and a family man with three adorable young children and a lovely wife. He studied at a state university and graduated as a doctor of veterinary medicine, working in the industry at various private and public institutions until he had a wake-up call and decided to start a business devoted to environmental sustainability and empowering farmers.
He witnessed the lack of sustainable practices among farmers in the countryside of the Philippines, not only in his home region of Siargao but across many regions and sectors and was motivated to do something about it and came up with the idea of CarbonCycle: “CarbonCycle will be a sustainability provider for farmers and the Agrofood industry to utilize everything with the use of renewable energy to produce food, fuel, fiber, chemicals and add value to agricultural products. The importance is given to save as much carbon as possible without emitting it to the environment in the form of CO2.” The Philippines are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change since it is an island nation, exposed to typhoons on a regular basis.
Using renewable energy to process waste into valuable products, it is possible to greatly increase income for small scale producers as well as industrial customers. Coconut shells, cashew nuts and pineapple pulp are just a few of the opportunities for enhanced sustainability, food security, more dignified work and pollution reduction all across the Philippines.
Dale started CarbonCycle in 2014 with the intention to improve recycling in the Philippines, which is the third largest contributor to ocean plastic pollution in the world. Realizing that renewable energy would have a transformative impact on the industry, he incorporated plans to include solar thermal energy into his business and quickly gained momentum. His business plan was ambitious but would clearly have important impact on people and profits. He was one of 5 winners of the the BPI Sinag Awards for social entrepreneurs in 2018, winning PHP500,000 ( 8600€)
“Winning the social entrepreneurship award was a highlight in my life, it gave me a boost in pushing for a more sustainable business concepts that are inclusive. This award became the spark for making this project with Solar Fire Concentration Ltd happen.” … “In striving for carbon awareness, business will be more sustainable because recycling will be more into organic and less into fossil products. I plan to build a concentrated solar thermal pyrolysis plant that can produce oil, carbon (sic:charcoal) and electricity.”
From a BPI Sinag article about CarbonCycle: "Dale had invited some classmates to join the company. Three of them were engineers: a civil engineer, an electrical engineer and an electronics engineer. One other classmate invited to join was an accounting graduate, while a fifth classmate was in marketing. “My engineer classmates are the ones who are keen on researching, looking for opportunities and converting the opportunities into viable products,” said Dale."
The agrifood industry is receiving a lot of attention from investors in the Philippines and through CarbonCycle’s inclusive and sustainable approach to doing business, Dale has been able to attract investors and partners who will be invaluable in catalyzing exponential growth to improve incomes for many small farmers while at the same time reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions. One of these partnerships is with the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP), with whom SFCO and CarbonCycle have signed a tripartite agreement to collect data based on the usage of the Lytefire 5 units CarbonCycle will be implementing, as well as for the development of more advanced industrial solutions for pyrolysis of plastic and agriwaste.
Above, Dale Llentic, founder of CarbonCycle, on a fact finding mission with a coconut shell charcoal producer.
We’re excited to be working with such a dedicated partner, whose values mirror closely our own, and I’m very much looking forward to presenting the results of this collaboration which is showcasing even more custom tailored solutions that will improve incomes and quality of life for small scale farmers while reducing their contributions to climate change and making them more resilient to the challenges ahead.
