Marc Privitera from PreProcess Inc is an engineer who fell in love with hemp's potential. He is applying his experiences working in both large corporations and smaller entrepreneurial endeavors to his upstate NY hemp farm. His ability to organize chaos and simplify complex concepts is helping people realize the plants unlimited potential. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/marc-privitera
Marc Privitera from PreProcess Inc is an engineer who fell in love with hemp's potential. He is applying his experiences working in both large corporations and smaller entrepreneurial endeavors to his upstate NY hemp farm. His ability to organize chaos and simplify complex concepts is helping people realize the plants unlimited potential.
https://podconx.com/guests/marc-privitera
Dan Humiston: [00:00:08] Welcome to another episode of Hemp Barons, I'm Dan Humiston. And on today's show, Joy is back in upstate New York to speak with an engineer turned Hemp farmer and to take an educational journey into how we're using. And we'll be using HAMP's unique characteristics to change the world and improve the health of the planet. Let's join Joy's conversation with Mark Privett Tara from Free Process.
Joy Beckerman: [00:00:39] Well, hello, Mark, thank you so much for being with us on Hemp Barons today.
Marc Privitera: [00:00:43] Joy, my pleasure. Really looking forward to a great discussion.
Joy Beckerman: [00:00:46] And it always is with you. You're a fascination to me because you have such a command of the legal and regulatory aspects in all of the complexities of Hemp, which is my world, the world that I live in. But you also have the city, tremendous command of the agronomy event as a license. Ken Farmer and many of the technical aspects of Hemp and the technical challenges that we face as we re-emerge as an agricultural commodity. Hemp has now reclaimed its rightful place in the broad light of day with all of the other agricultural commodities in the United States since the signing of the 2008 Mishkin Farm Bill. And you have come into Hemp from an impressive and prolific background of rankly gigantic engineering accomplishments. Before we get into the history of Mark Privett era, what brought you to Hemp?
Marc Privitera: [00:01:39] Well, Hemp is the joining of my family's history in farming with the entrepreneurial chemical engineering excitement. It's like being a kid in a candy shop, right? You get to be out in the fields. You get to convert agricultural product into different materials and present products to the different markets. You can't make a better mix for a chemical engineer.
Joy Beckerman: [00:02:01] And indeed, this is the plant to do it. And while there are many useful plants out there and oh, don't people have to tell me how these other useful plants exist? And I certainly know they do. Mother Nature is also prolific, but Hemp, of course, serves human and animal nutrition, body care, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, paper, textiles, building materials, industrial sealants, encoding, bio composites, bioplastics, energy and fuel, nanotechnology the whole bit. So you really are a kid in a candy store with this plant?
Marc Privitera: [00:02:32] Oh, absolutely. And keep in mind, the secret to good, sustainable business in the chemical industry is having a great feedstock and Hemp checks all the boxes on being a great feedstock for many, many things.
Marc Privitera: [00:02:46] I know a lot of the excitement is the CBD, which it should be, but there is so much more that is going to come onto the scene here over the next five, 10 years that it's really going to be impressive. It's just a great journey to be on, isn't it, though?
Joy Beckerman: [00:02:59] And thank goodness for CBD again. I said many times on the show that we can impress folks with the superior nature of the fiber quality of Hemp. In fact, we could discuss the nanotechnology aspects of it with more surface area and tensile strength than most everything out there. A really only second to graphite whiskers in carbon nanotubes and its nutritional value and all of those things. But it's CBD that is solving people's everyday problems, aches and pains and underlying issues, whether it be sleeplessness or nervousness. And they're coming to Hemp and learning through that. And that's helping to generate the revenue for these real trillion dollar industries which revolve around the oil seed and fiber for we talked about with pre process. Is tell us a little bit about your history in chemical engineering.
Marc Privitera: [00:03:50] Well, I spent 20 years in corporate America doing a lot of consumer products. And if you look in the supermarket shelves, I've either developed or worked on the teams through my career that put a lot of those on the shelf. So really got to understand the consumer really got to understand the trick with great products are simple to the user and usually simplicity at the end user means there's some serious engineering that got us there. Then my business partner Christine and I started pre process about 10 years ago as we entered the Pearl world and we delivered along with a team of great, passionate folks. The world's first supercritical biodiesel plant. So we took fatso oils and grease from the fry plants of Idaho and we took their waste oil and we turned it into biodiesel. And it was just a fantastic mall. Then the economy kind of got a little rough in 2009, 2010. So our biodiesel venture abruptly came to a halt. And our next entrepreneurial adventure was doing a rare earth mine. Rare Earth says if you put neo-Darwinian, which is one of the rare earths into magnets, they're made much more efficient. So we had a great team. We led the process. It was just a passionate family that brought that to reality. And it was great for the United States. It was a line in Southern California. It was done environmentally correctly. We did some great things. We close the water belt, which means all the water you take in the U.S. You don't waste any and you don't pollute. So it's really a great accomplishment. Then after that adventure, we went into a lot of lithium work. Lithium, of course, is driving the renewable energy and the energy storage markets now and then we took all those learnings to the entrepreneur world of b.c.'s peace pitching on Santa's road. Getting funds together, getting the technical aspects built that led us to Hemp. So the theme of our little company is we're always trying to create opportunity in a big way.
Marc Privitera: [00:05:47] So we went from biofuels, biodiesel to rare earths to lithium and now we're in Hemp. And the interesting thing we're trying to do is not only the CBD, which is important, no doubt about it, and it's fun, but we're trying to connect Hemp and use that as a feedstock for some high tech applications too, that are longer term. Things we're trying to do is energy storage device carbon from Hemp making use of, as you pointed out, the high surface area aspect of the material. And then also in the chemical industry, separations are a big deal. A chemical engineer reacts seperates. That's all they do to make it very simple. But in the separations, if you can create a particle that grabs something in a controlled way and then you can release it when you want to, you can do a separation.
Marc Privitera: [00:06:34] And we're finding that. So we're able to make some particles out of the Hemp different aspects of the Hemp that are grabbing certain things. So it's very exciting.
Joy Beckerman: [00:06:42] Oh, my God. It's just my job is to the floor because for some reason, as much as I know about you, Marc, I did not get the bio-diesel piece. Wow. That's a brand new situation for me. You are more amazing than ever. Could I get an explanation from it? Could you really know how to drill down, create information so that layman can understand it? You have, of course, the ability to just cut through tremendous amounts of complex and even contradicting information, make some order of it, some sense of it, and drill down how that's going to be. What is a supercapacitor.
Marc Privitera: [00:07:18] I appreciate your comments because I do teach at different levels and I really try to use examples that people can feel they understand to get into the more deeper aspects. I really appreciate those comments. It's it's really heartwarming. And I have years and years worth of students that have listened to my attic, total development of things that are complex, try and explain them simply. So here's a supercapacitor if you go with me on this one. All right.
Marc Privitera: [00:07:45] So when you're driving down a highway and there's a lot of bugs out, like in the summer. Right. Your windshield gets splattered with all these bugs. Basically, that's how a supercapacitor works. It's where the electrons get splattered on a surface. All the mosquitoes and the bugs. Those are the electrons and they're trapped on your windshield. OK, then when you go to a car wash or you go stop at a gas station and you use the squeegee to wipe the bugs off. That's like discharging a supercapacitor. So if you want to recharge the supercapacitor, go run down the highway, get more bugs squished on your windshield. That's adding electricity to the supercapacitor. It traps the electrons. And then when you want to use it to do something like you want to use the power, it's like wiping it off with the squeegee at the gas station. That's an analogy we could use.
Joy Beckerman: [00:08:33] Wow. Okay. Okay. I'm feeling this. I will give you credit for it, but I'm feeling this. Keep going, Mark.
Marc Privitera: [00:08:40] So a supercapacitor relative to help carbon has a very high surface area. If it's processed a certain way, if you start with a carbon based material, which Hemp is, that already has a very open, porous structure. When you carbonised the help and then when you add a certain processing aids to it, including let's say steam, I just boiled water. It takes the small particles that are carbonized of the Hemp and essentially treats it like popcorn. So it puffs it up and it just expands the surface there. So this is what's called steam activated carbon. So many, many plant based materials can be turned into carbon, but they're densely packed to start with. So the amount of steam activation that you need, it's like climbing a mountain. Right. If I got a 15 thousand foot mountain, I get dropped off by helicopter, 10000 feet. It's kind of easier for me to get up to 15000 feet. So Hemp kind of gets us up the mountain and the steam activation ends up with a better product.
Joy Beckerman: [00:09:43] Wow. OK. I think I might actually get that. Thank you.
Joy Beckerman: [00:09:48] And this, of course, will empower me to empower audiences as I go across the nation and frankly, all parts of the world here speaking. I think I'll be able to read that better. This is fantastic. And so let's now take Hemp a practical application. So let's talk about potentially light rails and monorails. What is the connection between the potential for Hemp and public transportation in the form of light rail?
Marc Privitera: [00:10:15] There's an awful lot of pieces, so you have to look at materials so Hemp fiber can actually be made into what's called a non-moving fabric that is just chaotically bonded. Then if you mix it with resons, you make a hard pedal so you can make the light rail car shells out of that material, a hard material, then you can use that same non-law. With a little bit different bonding to insulate it, and then you could, even if you wanted to finish it with a Hemp based carpet or finishing or whatnot. And this is done commonly because Hemp has the ability to fight off the microbial contamination that can occur in those spaces with light rail. That's just one aspect. Now, on the other aspect, if you take Hemp carbon, right decarbonization, I would say the mosquitoes are climbing up the mountain. If you take that and you use the carbon from Hemp in anodes for the batteries. OK. Or if you use that as the supercapacitor electron capture media. So basically what you have is an insulator, carbon, Hemp carbon and another insulator and you charge it, you're able to put Hemp into the different electrical components on the light rail. So that's what you can do. Then, if you want to go even further with a little bit more refinement and fancy chemical engineering, you can actually put the Hemp materials into other applications that all would be valid for light rail, but then also could be valid for other transportation vehicles as well.
Joy Beckerman: [00:11:49] I just I'm so grateful that we're interviewing you on the show today because I really I first of all, I want the world to know that this is where we're headed, that we've got the Boeings of the world, you know, looking into hands on the nano scale and all of its potential.
Joy Beckerman: [00:12:05] And this is truly, I think, where the plant is going. And you're definitely a fantastic person to deliver this message.
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Joy Beckerman: [00:13:34] Pre-processing tell us a little bit more about what your vision is for pre-processing going forward.
Marc Privitera: [00:13:41] We have a history of creating companies, right?
Marc Privitera: [00:13:42] So what we do is we'll take a technology or we'll get a group of financiers or a group of researchers that have got a hey, we've got this thing and we need to turn it into a commercial success. So that's what we do. So in the Hemp world, what we're trying to do is really research what possible products can we put into the market with a competitive advantage over what's already there? Then we're also trying to develop technologies that have applications in a larger supply chain system. So, for instance, a Hemp mixed particle that can grab certain elements or certain molecules that could be used for separation. That's a big deal inside the industrial complex of the chemical industry. What that does is it adds not only renewable aspects that weren't thought of before, but it also adds functionality that likely more interesting than what you can commonly do at the moment. The Hemp batteries what-not. Another aspect of oh, I hadn't thought of using that Hemp carbon. So what that does is it creates opportunity for folks to grow the biomass. Biomass right now is being used as CVT biomass, but I'm talking about the broader sense biomass. The rest of the plant, if we can get millions of acres of Hemp grown in common methods, the grains, the larger mechanized agricultural. I'm not saying monoculture and there's nothing wrong with organic and all that.
Marc Privitera: [00:15:13] But for industrial materials, this would create opportunities for farmers to rotate Hemp into their crops like which is great for the soil and gives them a great market with a product outlet that doesn't have to have them change from an agricultural base to more of a horticultural based horticultural base is really the CBD grow method. But if we could get into a normal crop rotation alfalfa, wheat, corn, oats, Hemp and give those farmers the ability to then sell into these high tech products, then we're also looking at if we put a lot of CO2 sequestering plants in the ground, which Hemp is all growing, plants need CO2 instead of having to plant 2 trillion trees which are needed for the mass Delancy Earth to save the earth. Maybe what we need is just millions and millions of acres of Hemp and we can take that and put it into these high tech products that have a complete supply chain. We're killing two birds with one stone or we're actually making birds live longer because what we're doing is not only are we using CO2 in the atmosphere which any chemical engineer in the world should be concerned about, but Hemp sequesters it and he makes it as a product that just easily fits into the natural cycle of things. So we're trying to do the ultimate renewable and cyclical agriculture.
Joy Beckerman: [00:16:36] And even though this is based on a want or desire to heal the environment, heal the planet. Planetary human component, as I say, we're actually discussing this from a business and technological point of view. If you want to look at it just from those points of view and feel free to look at the planetary healing aspects as a bonus, it's awesome. But you can just be looking at the benefits of Hemp and the obvious commonsense of bringing this into a farmer's rotation just from a business perspective. And we're not going to be able to have time in this conversation because it's another great questions I want to ask the brainiac while I have him on the phone here about how this rotation even really helps with the pest management cycle and really help break that cycle. So there are just so many benefits to adding Hemp to a farmer's rotation for their bottom line over. Hey, for goodness sake, it's so fantastic. You're also now a farmer and as Hemp years ago, you're an experienced farmer.
Joy Beckerman: [00:17:36] You know your dog eat dog years, days.
Joy Beckerman: [00:17:41] Is it your second year or your third year with plants and harvesting in the ground in the great Empire State, the state of New York?
Marc Privitera: [00:17:48] Third year. We're one of the pioneers. So we're having the balls. Three years of of cycles. So it's been fantastic.
Joy Beckerman: [00:17:55] You said your field readying a bit right now. Did you grow any varieties for fiber? Is that what your field ready? We don't read for CBD, for goodness sake.
Marc Privitera: [00:18:03] Right. We've kept small and we've always done multiple methods with multiple cultivars. Christina, my business partner and I pre-processing. We always want to learn hands on what we're doing before we start thinking we know anything because gut tell you. Thirty five years in the industry. The more I think I know, the more I don't know. I am a better learner when I actually do some and get into it. So we really have tried all different methods we've extracted with. So to extract with ethanol sector, with steam extracted, with all the different methods we've grown, let's see 10 different varieties. 15 different ways. We've done various field methods planted using seed drills, using air drills, using broadcast's methods we've harvested by hand and we've ha I mean, to really appreciate what it takes. So when we get into a conversation with folks, I can think in my mind as I'm talking with people go in and done that because you have to have that practical dirt under your fingernails to really understand this plant. There are grain farmers and a farmers and vegetable growers all over the United States feeding and clothing the world. Fantastic. But you know, the most experienced person I say, look what to take a couple acres and really get to know the plant. Your first year. So that's what we've been doing. So we've done all different types of strip trials. And we've got some pretty good lab books worth of information for the contributions.
Joy Beckerman: [00:19:32] And the fact that you are assessing intellectual, they can deal with this this chemical engineering on so many different levels, but also a farmer who gets that dirt and that soil under his fingernails and gets in with the Hemp and really understands it. And also your contributions as an advocate. We're building this industry together and thanks to prohibition, she said sarcastically, and not bitter.
Joy Beckerman: [00:19:58] We don't have a lot of research, particularly around testing. And so I have to bring up the fact that you, as busy as you are, as accomplished as you are with as many things on your plate as you have, you understand the need to contribute, to participate and to really chop the wood and carry the water of delivering on the promise of Hemp. And one of the major challenges that we have in Hemp throughout all of the industries that I named earlier are testing.
Joy Beckerman: [00:20:26] Yes. It comes down to we have to take the field sample, first of all, in the field, then that sample needs be prepared for an analytical method. What analytical method?
Joy Beckerman: [00:20:37] There is no you know, the G8 doesn't necessary. And then when we've got our finished products, whether they're for human or animal consumption or or some other thing, we then need to do this fit for purpose testing. And if we were to just to talk about CBG, we have CVD Parmesan. We have CVD ice cream sandwiches and microwavable popcorn. We also have soft gels and tinctures and life asone. And you understand and have seen for some time now the complexities and the challenges that all of this brings. And as we deliver the crop from the shackles of hysterical prohibition and uncertainty and non-scientific understandings and bring it into the broad light of day of science and industry, we have a huge work cut out for us here and nobody has really taken that on. And as president of the Hemp Industries Association, when you reached out to me, as invaluable had been to cease association member for some time now and said, you know what, I think I'm the guy to do it. And as you well know, it isn't just the Hemp Industries Association that I lead. I'm the vice president of the U.S. Embassy already the vice president of the U.S.
Joy Beckerman: [00:21:43] Hemp roundtable. But the challenges are so nearly overwhelmingly insurmountable. So it seems that nobody has taken it on. And I get a call from you one day saying, Joy, you know what? Somebody's got to do it. And he thinks I'm the guy to do it because I can take. Because we're talking about 50 different countries in terms of the 50 states and all these different state methods, although as we 46 of them with some type of method or devising it and then all of the different countries and then the feds coming in. And you said to, you know what, somebody needs to gather all of this data from field sampling the sample preparation to analytical method. We need to get it all together, find out where the gaps are and start synthesizing and creating this industry that is really the chopping of the wood and the carying of the water. And you said, Joy, I will lead the HIV AIDS sample and Analytical Technical Operations Cycle Taskforce, which did not exist until you reached out to me. Brother, could you tell us a little bit about those challenges and about what your vision is in taking on this incredibly magnanimous task?
Marc Privitera: [00:22:51] I appreciate it. I've appreciated the support that you've given in the effort so far. And we'll continue, I'm sure. So my superpower is creating clarity from chaos right now. I see a lot of chaos in all the different methods and folklore and pseudo science that is in the sampling of fields, preparing the sample, analyzing the sample, reporting the data. And you can't do a complex engineering project without having credible information that's based on factual data. That's just the way it is. Two plus two equals four. You have to have a good. Since that the data you're using doesn't have a variability that puts things in question. And there's a lot of samples being taken now in certain ways that may or may not truthfully reflect what's actually out in the field. And that could be good or bad. Some people might want it. Well, I just want one sample that says I'm below point three, for instance, for the THC. So they don't have to worry about it versus is represented the field. Is it actually statistically valid? Are the operators that are doing sample prep? Are the technicians that are doing the sample dilutions and the running of the machines or are they actually qualified? So it's a big deal. I don't want to lay down a set of rules that binds anybody. We have to have a conversation on. We're going to have to have a certain professional level of statistical basis for making the data fact based. There's variability. But it has to be defined and there has to be a conversation. We have to bring many people to the table, which is going to be chaos. And since I've run billion dollar projects, which are chaos, I feel very strongly that I have the experience to create clarity from that chaos. It'll take some time, but what a great journey. And like I said, it's my superpower. So I like doing it.
Joy Beckerman: [00:24:49] Oh, man. Well, what a blessing you are. There have been disease association for certain.
Joy Beckerman: [00:24:54] But to the entire global Hemp industries, it's an incredible task to take on again. I can't help but continue to use the word contribution to this promising crop and all that we need and all that it needs. And yes, it is going to take some time. But you're the man with the timetables in this. And our listeners, as we wrap up here, please do check out pre process ink dot com that's P R EPR, 0C S S I N C pre process inc.com. Learn about all that. Mark Privett Terra and his business partner Christie W Kristine's last name, by the way, as a as I talk about her, Cristina Borges.
Marc Privitera: [00:25:33] She's on the website obviously also, but she's out in California. We weren't born anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world really.
Joy Beckerman: [00:25:39] So Cristina Borges is what, a woman. I cannot wait to meet her and just thank you. Ten million times over for all that you've done, all that you continue to do and all that. I know you are going to bring them the world's most versatile, valuable crop from pre-processing. Mark Riviera, thank you so much for being with us today, brother. And I can't wait to have you on again.
Marc Privitera: [00:26:00] Oh, my pleasure. And Joy, thanks to you for all that you do and for you creating opportunity to get the word out and preaching the message and really fantastic and wish you the best of luck and everything you're doing. And I look forward to seeing it here in a couple of weeks.
Joy Beckerman: [00:26:14] Send out. Thank you so much again. Me, too. Marco, stop it.
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