Wendy Owners, Founder and CEO of Hexas Biomass Inc.
Hexas produces XanoFiber™, a nature-based substitute for wood and other fossil-based feedstocks for a variety of bioenergy and structural and non-structural applications. We derive XanoFiber™ from XanoGrass™, a family or proprietary regenerative grasses that grow in a range of climate zones, require minimal inputs and don’t displace food crops. At Hexas, we recover, replace and reclaim what the Earth has lost, disrupting the use of greenhouse gas-intense raw materials with low-cost nature-based raw materials without interrupting supply chains or production. Hexas will be demonstrating our XanoFiber™ as a purposefully grown crop and how we contract with farmers for its production to supply customers producing a number of structural and non-structural products and bioenergy products (biofuels and combustible pellets).
Hexas demonstrated the value of our XanoFiber™ as a substitute for wood and fossil fuel-based raw materials. Twenty DT of XanoFiber™ replaces twenty 15.5-meter-tall pine trees growing on one acre. For one fiberboard plant using 120,000 DT of wood/year, this means leaving over 60,000 pines trees standing every year, enabling them to continue to sequester carbon. XanoFiber™ is harvested annually, and pine trees are every 20-30 depending on production location. XanoFiber™ produces 3-5 times more ethanol per acre than corn, at comparable irrigation levels. We will show how we contract with farmers for a long-term supply of XanoFiber™ and how our farmers can make long-term revenue a certainty by producing XanoGrass™ for us.
Specialized exhibitions allow Hexas to demonstrate the importance of our XanoGrass™ as a feedstock in many different places in the world. They provide us with the ability to showcase the nature-based fibre solution that we supply to customers as a carbon-negative solution. We show how we leave trees standing, leave food crops for food and not fuel, and leave fossil fuels in the ground where they should be.
We hope that this exhibition introduces us to farmers that want to grow our XanoGrass™ for Hexas to supply our customers in the region. We hope to provide farmers with the opportunity to grow a perennial crop that can provide extensive ecosystem services that include carbon sequestration, soil aeration and repair, restoration of the soil microbiome, and nitrogen addition to the soil. Hexas hopes to bring knowledge XanoFiber™ as a carbon-negative fibre that can replace wood and fossil fuel-based feedstocks to the visitors of this international agriculture exhibition and to provide many opportunities to the farming community.