DR. PETE POOVANNA

FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dr. Poovanna Thimmaiah, affectionately known as Pete, is a highly accomplished mechanical engineer with a passion for sustainable business. Pete founded Forest Bean Inc. in 2019 to bring sustainably grown Indian coffee to connoisseurs around the world.

Pete was born and raised in the Western Ghats in India, where he was influenced by his family’s land management and community’s spiritually-rooted practices called “sacred grove farming.”

Pete’s parents are sixth-generation coffee farmers in India. They produce the highest quality of coffee with the utmost emphasis on sustainability.

The family farm practices agroforestry, which purposefully integrates the growing of trees with crops. This practice enhances biodiversity, soil health and crop production on the coffee farm.

Pete’s studies in engineering and commitment to sustainability led to a successful career in the clean energy sector. Pete holds a Ph.D. in Mechatronic Systems Engineering from Simon Fraser University, Canada. He is the inventor of the U.S. patented technology called ‘nature-inspired capillary-assisted evaporator for sustainable air-conditioning.’ Before moving to Canada for his Ph.D., Pete worked with the multinational automotive company Robert Bosch, Germany as a senior computational fluid dynamics engineer.

Currently, Pete is the program manager for the climate change and air quality department at the Fraser Basin Council, implementing zero-emission transportation initiatives throughout the province of British Columbia. Pete is also a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, Policy Options, and has several scientific publications related to clean technology.

Pete has successfully combined his expertise in clean technology and heritage of sacred grove farming to create Forest Bean Inc. Working with Indian family farmers to expand sustainable coffee farming techniques while producing high-quality coffee beans is a replicable business model that enhances both local communities and environments.

Pete’s work in India creates sustainable economic development opportunities for small scale farmers. It brings sustainably sourced coffee to ethical consumers worldwide.

Contributions

Huffington Post 

1.Other Countries Have Jumped Headlong Into Solar Energy. Canada Should, Too

It is a smart choice because solar is super-abundant, clean and can generate jobs.

2.New Technology Needs Government Support. Solar Energy's No Different

Subsidies on solar in Canada are essential until it reaches grid parity and can generate electricity at the same cost or lower than traditional fuels.
3.Canadians Should Demand A More Eco-Friendly Cup Of Coffee

While the economy around coffee grows, and Canada tops coffee consumption, the Amazon rainforest vanishes.
4.Canada Needs A Modern Labour Policy In The Age Of AI And Automation

More than 40 per cent of jobs could be wiped out in next 10 to 20 years, on par with what happened during the Great Recession.
5.Canadian Democracy Isn't Up To The Challenge Of Climate Change

It is imperative to build a long-term sustainable climate policy when provinces change leaders, parties and ideology, every few years.
6.Climate Change Debate Needs To Focus On What People Actually Care About

Let's start relating climate change problems to the shared benefits of addressing the issue

Electric Autonomy Canada

Ensuring Canada's Economic Recovery Is An Environmental Recovery 

The emissions drop induced by COVID-19 has provided a glimpse to a future with sustainable transportation. These ideas will help make it permanent.

Policy Options

1. Electric Vehicles As Part Of Canada’s Climate Change Solution

EVs are the better choice for Canadians who choose to buy a car ─ electrifying the vehicles on our roads could be part of the climate change solution.
2.The Challenge For EVs To Disrupt Trucks And Buses

Commercial vehicles use weighty, wildly expensive batteries and need powerful charging stations. A broad shift to electric will take some policy help.

International Policy Digest

1.India’s Solar Rush

Seventy years ago, India became independent. Now the world’s largest democracy is preparing for the future.
2.AI, Economic Inequality And Canada’s Role

AI is slowly seeping into our lives in profound ways. The way we think about AI is coloured by popular culture and science fiction. 
3.Social Polarization Challenges: Can they Lead to Social Innovation?

The process of segregation within a society emerging from poverty, social exclusion and income inequality has led to the formation of various social groups, from high-income to low-income.

The Georgia Straight

The Coffee Economy Booms, The Amazon Forest Vanishes. So What's The Solution?

If you wonder how coffee is produced, it is obvious that millions of trees are brought down to make coffee farms. This is worrisome when seen through the prism of climate change. The entire ecosystem is destroyed in the making of such farms. While the economy around coffee grows, the Amazon rainforest vanishes.

Nature

A New Approach to Compute the Porosity and Surface Roughness of Porous Coated Capillary-Assisted Low Pressure Evaporators

Scientific Reports volume 8, Article number: 11708 (2018)

SCIENCE DIRECT

1.Evaluation of low-pressure flooded evaporator performance for adsorption chillers

Energy, Volume 122, 1 March 2017, Pages 144-158
2. Effects of adsorbent mass and number of adsorber beds on the performance of a waste heat-driven adsorption cooling system for vehicle air conditioning applications

Energy, Volume 112, 1 October 2016, Pages 481-493
3. Effects of capillary-assisted tubes with different fin geometries on the performance of a low-operating pressure evaporator for adsorption cooling system applications

Applied Energy, Volume 171, 1 June 2016, Pages 256-2654.

Performance of finned tubes used in low-pressure capillary-assisted evaporator of adsorption cooling systems

Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 106, 5 August 2016, Pages 371-380

Springer Link

Experimental and numerical investigation of a solar eductor-assisted low-pressure water desalination system

Greenhouse solar-energy driven desalination technology is potentially well suited for supplying water and small scale irrigation in remote and/or rural areas, and for avoiding over-exploitation of available water resources.

BEGELL HOUSE

Effects of fin spacing and fin height on the performance of a low operating pressure evaporator for an adsorption cooling system

Adsorption cooling systems (ACS) are a viable alternative to vapor compression refrigeration cycles where low-grade waste heat is abundant.

Nafems

Numerical Investigation of Droplet Distribution from a pre-filming Air Blast Atomizer

Invited Talks

1.Clean Energy BC

2.BC Green Party

3.City Of New Westminster

4.B.C. Public Sector Climate Leadership Symposium, Vancouver, Canada

5.Global Learning Forum, Renewable Cities, Vancouver, Canada

6. Heat Powered Cycles Conference, Bayreuth, Germany
7. International Sorption Heat Pump Conference (ISHPC 2017), Tokyo, Japan
8. International Symposium on Innovative Materials for Processes in Energy Systems (IMPRES 2016), Sicily, Italy
9. International Seminar: Heat Pipes, Heat Pumps, Refrigerators, Power Sources, 2015, Minsk, Belarus
10.Represented the Province of B.C.: Green Transportation Summit and Expo, Tacoma, USA

Featured

1.Coorg-Born Pete Poovanna, Inventor Of New Technology, Awarded Canadian Doctorate, COORG NEWS

2.Eminent People of Coorg

3.The New West Greens hosts its first Speakers’ Series featuring guest speaker Pete Poovanna

4.Canadian Business News

Patent

1. Pete Thimmaiah and Majid Bahrami, Simon Fraser University: Micro Capillary assisted low-pressure evaporator. Ref. US Provisional Patent filed, application #: US 62/623,406
2. Pete Thimmaiah, Robert Bosch GMBH: Apparatus for effective heat dissipation for rectifier in an alternator. Ref. No: Application No.92/CHE/2012 A, Year: 05/2013