Grayson LandCare Monthly Meeting
Monday, March 20th, 7 pm
Robert Smith presents: “Torrefaction: Transforming forestry waste into an excellent organic fertilizer while sequestering carbon to fight climate change and creating free energy.”
Robert Smith is a Vietnam era veteran who studied nuclear electronics and served aboard the USS Enterprise. He earned undergraduate degrees in Economics and Philosophy from Iowa State University, then went on to earn a Masters degree in English Communications. He put himself through school working nights, gaining nearly 20 years experience in industrial machine repair, aviation microwave electronics, continuous flow systems, hydrogen catalyzation, fast pyrolysis and heat exchange systems. Around 1990, Robert left the factories and started managing construction projects, consulting and writing business plans. Turning an old hobby into a profession, he builds computers to process video. He has produced more than 1,000 hours of video for television, cable, webinars, presentations and university courses.
Robert was a charter member of the Winston-Salem Mayor’s Community Sustainability Committee, and chaired the Non-Residential subcommittee. He was CFO of a $4.2 billion wind farm startup, installed solar electric PV systems and built various energy efficient structures. He is also a charter member of Grayson LandCare.
In 2007 Robert started researching sustainable solutions to modern pollution problems, consulting with farmers, business managers, and government managers about how to save money while making their organizations more sustainable by implementing high technology solutions. To this end, he designed a series of machines which are capable of converting any organic material into energy and other valuable by-products. Sustainable solutions for CAFO operation, such as poultry, hog and cattle dung, MSW (municipal solid waste) sewage sludge, oil spills, paper production, forestry operations and other environmental pollution exist today.
Robert currently teaches at Virginia Highlands Community College and the HigherEd Center in Abingdon, Virginia.