An inspirational leader and visionary with a remarkable career spanning three decades in the food industry, John Blazevich formerly served as the CEO and president of Contessa Premium Foods. In addition, John Blazevich has demonstrated a strong dedication to environmental sustainability through his pivotal involvement in the construction of the world's first LEED-certified frozen food manufacturing plant, which is powered by biomass energy.
Biomass energy is a form of renewable energy that comes from organic materials such as woody plants, food crops, oil-rich algae, microorganisms, and organic components of industrial and municipal waste. This type of energy is carbon neutral, contrary to petroleum or fossil energy, which releases carbon molecules that were trapped in organic plant materials millions of years ago.
Carbon emissions are a threat to the environment because carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gasses raise the temperature of the atmosphere, which is hazardous to the ecosystem. When a machine draws power from biomass fuel, it burns the products of recently harvested plants. These plants have previously reduced the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Returning the carbon back to the atmosphere does not technically raise the amount of greenhouse gasses, but rather maintains their level.
Biomass energy (bioenergy) technologies include biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts. Biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol are liquid fuels used for transportation (in dedicated biofuel and blended fuel vehicles). Biopower generates heat and electricity from renewable biomass fuels through processes such as bacterial decomposition, combustion, and other methods. Bioproducts are a wide range of chemicals and other products that are derivatives of renewable biomass sources. Examples are bioplastics and biofertilizers.
