Courtesy of Lakeland Biochar founder and CEO Tyler Kerrigan
Mount Bagasse in Lakeland, Louisiana
In Lakeland, Louisiana, the highest point of land isn’t actually land at all. Covering forty acres at its base hand rising seventy feet above the flatlands, “Mount Bagasse,” as it’s colloquially known, is a monumental pile of sugarcane bagasse generations in the making. Bagasse—the fibrous material left over after cane juice extraction—is the residue of more than a century of sugar production at Alma Sugarcane Mill, which has been processing raw sugar from cane grown at Alma Cane Farm since 1859. Each year the mill processes two million tons of Alma-grown cane to produce around 500 million pounds of sugar, and generates 600,000 tons of bagasse. Around 250,000 tons are burned to power the mill. The rest goes on the pile. Mount Bagasse is growing by two to three acres per year.
“My hope is that this can not only stop the [Alma] pile from growing, but also to begin to eat into the pile, and that it can expand beyond Alma to help other mills as well. Because the problem of ever-increasing bagasse is everyone’s problem.”
—Olivia Stewart
But one industry’s waste is another’s opportunity. Enter Lakeland Biochar, a startup partnering with Alma to turn sugarcane bagasse into high-quality biochar. Biochar is a stable form of charcoal that, when added to soil, enhances fertility, increases moisture and nutrient retention, and promotes beneficial microbial activity while reducing soil emissions of greenhouse gases. Biochar is made in a gasifier, a high-tech process in which bagasse feedstock is heated in an oxygen-starved environment. Gasification produces biochar plus a carbon-monoxide-rich syngas, which is burned to power the system—a virtuous cycle that produces very little exhaust. According to Lakeland Biochar founder and CEO Tyler Kerrigan, this makes gasification both efficient and environmentally beneficial, since sugarcane bagasse biochar is not only prized by farmers, gardeners, and soil remediation specialists, but also locks up significant quantities of carbon. So, biochar production generates carbon credits. Kerrigan explained that initially, Lakeland Biochar will build a gasification unit capable of turning 60,000 tons of bagasse into 6,500 tons of biochar while generating 15,000 carbon credits, which the company will sell.
Eventually, the goal is to scale the operation to the point at which all the bagasse Alma produces is converted into commercially viable biochar while eliminating a costly waste product. In a state where 550,000 acres of sugarcane is harvested annually, it’s not hard to see the potential. Olivia Stewart, fifth generation owner of Alma Sugar Mill and President of Oxbow Rum Distillery, sees it. “My hope is that this can not only stop the [Alma] pile from growing, but also to begin to eat into the pile,” she said, “and that it can expand beyond Alma to help other mills as well. Because the problem of ever-increasing bagasse is everyone’s problem.” If coming up with a solution to a persistent problem for Louisiana’s sugar industry creates a sustainable, lucrative new state industry into the bargain, everyone wins. And perhaps, after more than 150 years, Mount Bagasse can begin to shrink at last.
