We started this journey in 2011 while researching renewable energy, particularly the gasification or pyrolysis of biomass to form biochar.  At this time there was a lot of green hype around biochar, including then Federal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull and scientist Tim Flannery activity promoting its potential for carbon sequestration. While researching pyrolysis technology we became aware of a liquid condensate produced under certain conditions, this liquid had a long history of use in agriculture, mainly throughout Asia in small scale farming.

We imported some product and tested it by carrying out hundreds of pot trials, which gave exceptional results for seed germination and healthy plant growth. A full review of research, production technologies, and commercially available products was completed, including visits overseas to assess developing  technology. It quickly became apparent to us that there was minimal scientific research of the product or any real industrial scale production, making the advancement of this product into commercial agriculture a major long term challenge!

Our vision has been to develop a product that could be produced in commercial quantities with reliable quality and was not just a fringe, alternative treatment.  This meant we needed to:

• carry out robust scientific research into how the product works,
• ensure it is safe for the environment,
• develop product specifications, and
• develop production technology including refining that produces a consistent quality product for dependable results in the field.

An international search and evaluation of production technologies lead us to a local company, who were developing a fundamentally new technology for converting biomass.  Their process produced a good quality raw material for us to then further refine to our specifications. The technology offered the benefits of a low temperature gas, continuous production and clean outputs easily meeting strict Australian regulations. This is a great improvement on low tech batch production with high temperature dirty products.

We worked directly with the technology company for over 4 years, collaborating on advancing the technology with various feedstock materials, testing products, and building the first commercial facility using this patented technology. During this time we have also invested heavily in developing new product refining technologies, ensuring a consistent quality product meeting our high specifications. Dozens of raw product samples from various suppliers from Australia and Overseas where tested with none meeting the specifications required for commercial use.  These samples predominately had high tar content, and low concentration of active ingredients making them unsuitable for commercial farming

Our investment in advancing technology, our unique refining process and our adherence to rigid quality standards is what differentiates PyroAg  from other imitators.  We are also reinforcing this with a large, ongoing investment in sound scientific research carried out by leading Universities specialising in soil biology. Work to date has proven PyroAg is safe for the environment and has also shown positive increases to both the population and diversity of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) after a single application.

The exciting results we have seen from early adopters using PyroAg in the field has further reinforced our belief in the product.  This has given us the confidence to have locked in further research and increased production to make PyroAg available for any farmer who wants a more sustainable outcome for their farming business