With the PYREG proto­type for the Swiss biochar pioneer Verora AG, both compa­nies have now been awarded.

The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BFE) awards the PYREG GmbH as tech­no­logy partner of the Swiss Verora AG with the renowned Watt d’Or, the award for best achie­ve­ment in the energy sector.

Green heat and premium biochar

Verora AG is a group of farmers from the Zug moun­tain region and since 2012 has been opera­ting one of the first plants of the now world­wide leading plant manu­fac­turer PYREG. With the P500 used in Switz­er­land, the Swiss biochar pioneers have been recy­cling locally produced, untreated tree and shrub cuttings into high-quality biochar and gene­rate green heat in the process. This heat heats the farm buil­dings via an inte­grated hot-water circuit, a concept that has already been adopted on a larger scale by the Basel IWB as an energy supplier.

Conti­nuous opti­miz­a­tion for best performance

The PYREG P500 system was deve­loped in a close tech­no­lo­gical exchange between Verora AG and PYREG and today produces high-quality EBC-certi­fied premium biochar. Verora AG is one of the leading suppliers of biochar in the Swiss market. “We are pleased with our success as a tech­no­logy partner of Verora AG. The Verora GmbH in the person of Fredy Abächerli, and in parti­cular the Keiser opera­ting family are true pioneers in the Swiss biochar market. They reco­gnized very early the need for an alter­na­tive in agri­cul­ture and climate protec­tion and took risks that are now rightly appre­ciated,” says Helmut Gerber, CTO and founder of PYREG GmbH.