TerViva

We built TerViva™ to solve the imbalanced equation of a shrinking arable land base and a rising demand for food, fuel and fertilizer. Our solution is to help growers convert distressed agricultural land into productive acreage by growing a tree-based oilseed crop called Pongamia. Our technology is based on proprietary advancements in agronomy and the genetics of pongamia, a leguminous tree species that produces 8x higher oil yield per acre than soybeans on underused agricultural lands stressed from disease and changing environmental conditions. TerViva™ is currently working with leading agriculture and land management companies in Florida and Hawaii to establish pilot projects and commercial size acreage – two geographies where the need for a new crop and the proper climate for pongamia intersect. Native to India and Australia, pongamia is a long-living tree that produces an annual harvest of seeds that are similar to soybeans. On a per-acre basis, pongamia produces eight times the amount of oil than a soybean with a fraction of the inputs (water, fertilizer, pesticides, etc.) and is thus cheaper to maintain while being much more sustainable and environmentally friendly. We use pongamia to “grow oil”, combining agriculture with chemistry to produce clean fuels and green chemicals -- while at the same time restoring underproductive land and creating jobs in rural communities. Pongamia oil contains long-chain fatty acids that are well-suited for conversion into biodiesel, renewable diesel, high-performance surfactants, and lubricants. Once removed of oil, the residual pongamia seed cake is high in both nitrogen and protein, and has proven value as a fertilizer and animal feed supplement. TerViva™ has compiled an exclusive library of high-yielding, patentable pongamia genetics from around the world and has developed propagation techniques for scalable, consistent results.