Ontario biomass grower slain in Brazil
Sunday, December 8, 2013
by JIM ALGIE
An Ontario-based, world leader in biomass crop development was shot dead, Saturday, in a botched highway robbery during a business trip to Brazil, widespread press reports say.
Dean Tiessen was president of the pioneering, New Energy Farms of Leamington, Ont. One colleague described Tiessen and his company as “a world leader” in varietal research for the perennial, biomass crop, miscanthus, which is being developed for use as combustion fuel and industrial fibre. A married father of four children and a member of a well-known Leamington-area family of greenhouse growers, Tiessen was in Brazil exploring potential business expansion.
Tiessen’s most recent Facebook postings, dated Dec. 1 and Nov. 30, feature photos of the Brazilian landscape and express enthusiasm for the company’s Brazilian prospects.
“He just saw an incredible opportunity down there,” fellow Ontario Biomass Producers Cooperative director Urs Eggimann said in an interview, Monday. “He’s definitely the early adopter of miscanthus in Ontario and then, by far and by a long shot, the most significant grower,” Eggimann said by phone from his farm near Owen Sound.
“For the family it’s absolutely devastating,” Eggimann said of Tiessen’s murder. Asked about the impact of Tiessen’s death on biomass development, Eggimann described it as “a tremendous setback to say the least.”
“Dean’s initiative, Dean’s knowledge, his engagement . . . is second to none. You can’t replace that over night,” Eggimann said.
A report from the Brazilian newspaper, Veja Sao Paulo, with Google translation from the original Portuguese, says Tiessen’s killing occurred near the coastal city of Cubatao. He was driving a rental car with New Energy Farms CEO Dr. Paul Carver as a passenger when they approached a pair of stopped vehicles on the highway. Police investigators told reporters the arrival of Tiessen and Carver interrupted an attempted truck highjacking.
Tiessen was shot twice as he moved to unfasten his seat belt, the Veja Sao Paulo report said. The bandits fled. Police had no suspects within 24 hours of the shooting.
Tiessen received wounds to one arm and his chest. Carver attempted to provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but emergency workers found Tiessen without vital signs at the scene, Veja Sao Paulo says.
His pioneering work with miscanthus earned Tiessen a Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Excellence in 2011. The award cites conversion of Tiessen tomato greenhouses to biomass heating in 2005.
Since then, however, the company has concentrated on development of biomass crops, new varieties, propagation and planting techniques. Eggimann said New Energy greenhouses contain more than 100 varieties of potential plants from all climate zones of the world.
The New Energy Farms website claims it has provided “the majority” of miscanthus planted in North America in the past two years from a base of 2,000 acres of established miscanthus. It has developed new planting techniques using rhizomes and specialized equipment. New Energy recently established the first crop of miscanthus for a University of Iowa project to expand renewable fuel for campus power plants.
In recent years, the company has announced collaborations with the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus and with Seacliff Energy, a Leamington-area electricity producer using plant-based fuel stock. As well, New Energy has helped develop bio-plastics, consumer and industrial products using miscanthus fibres.
Dean Tiessen joined the board of the Ontario Biomass Producers Cooperative recently as the organization sought to strengthen promotion of biomass production in the province, Eggimann said.
“Dean was by far the world leader in this field,” he said. In addition to the Ontario base near Leamington, New Energy Farms also has operations in the U.S. in Georgia and in the U.K.
“He really wanted to go in a big way in Latin America,” Eggimann said of Tiessen’s recent business trip to Brazil.
The Brazilian climate, a history of sugar cane production and the presence of under-used, cane processing facilities are ideal for future production of biomass and energy crops, Eggimann said.
News of the shooting moved quickly among biomass growers. New Energy CEO Paul Carver is himself a leading miscanthus researcher. That Carver survived the incident means “some chance for reasonable continuity” for company operations, Eggimann said, before adding “Dean was really, really it.”
“He had such a lot of energy and he was involved in all kinds of research applications. He worked with universities, with various industry sectors . . . He had a talent to really talk about his business in a very articulate way,” Eggimann said. BF