About Us
Kealan Gell
Kealan was born in BC and grew up on Vancouver Island, where he learned the importance of sustainable living. After graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering at McGill University in 2006, he worked extensively for two years in the biogas and composting industry in Quebec and England. He went on to complete an MSc in Agricultural Engineering in the Netherlands in 2010, returning to BC where he founded Off-Grid Gas in 2011. Since that time he has continually operated a number of digesters in BC and shipped several back to Europe.
Kealan continues to be involved in international work and research, he was a presenter at "Micro-Biogas in Western Europe: The Technology, its Role, and Applications" held in Belgium in 2018 as well as giving a presentation on digeponics, "Biogas West - The Canadian Biogas Association" Held in Vancouver in January of 2020.
Yodit Kebede
Yodit Kebede (Ph.D) is our advisor for projects in Europe and Africa. She is an agricultural engineer, with a wide range of experience in agroecology, natural pest control and soil and water management. Yodit works from the field to landscape scale and at both the scientific and policy level. She has field work experience in Ethiopia, Belgium, Ouest Africa and worked with major universities (Wageningen University, University of Louvain la Neuve) and international organisations (UN FAO, CTA, French national Research Institute for Development) in agricultural and food sector. She also has extensive life experience in several African countries including Ethiopia, Madagascar and Guinea. As an engineer who speaks several languages, including communicating with non-experts in non-technical language, she is helping Off-Grid Gas to identify clients and projects that can serve all parties involved, as well as the aims of the agroecology movement, namely to make farming more resilient and sustainable
Srishti Birla
Srishti is our other anaerobic digester consultant, aside from Kealan. She works closely with Kealan on the TMP services to help keep things organized and accurate. She comes from a background of chemical process engineering, and at a young age she has already developed a lot of knowledge on a variety of chemical and biological processes relevant to biogas and nutrient recovery in India and in Canada, as well as being closely involved in developing our TMP service (theoretical methane potential estimation-see services). Srishti holds an M.Eng in Chemical Engineering and has also completed a minor in business management. She has a strong combination of skills as a TMP consultant, which includes valuation of biogas, fertilizer and waste disposal flows on a given farm or site.
Maryam Zahiri
Maryam is our wizard in the Internet of Things. Maryam took the hands-on experience in Engineering, Robotics, Automation, and smart home technologies at UBC. She is improving our ability to manage remote system communication, and develop our software, and circuits, then analyze our data. We started this in 2013 and we now have dependable monitoring, which is improving all the time. Maryam has developed our method of remote digester monitoring and control through the web, that we now rely on. Our embedded systems report and log data on a regular basis for monitoring, and an onsite micro-computer that Maryam can control from anywhere. Thanks Maryam for keeping our digesters online!
Vaughan Good
Vaughan is our seasoned technician, who has learned everything about what to do, what not to do, and anything that can go wrong when building, transporting and operating small anaerobic digesters. He has been working for Off-Grid Gas since 2013. He has performed maintenance and operational tasks on a regular basis for two digesters on Salt Spring and in Duncan and can provide on-site support services including delivery, operation, cleanup and removal services, as well as digester check-up service, repair, and maintenance – as needed. Vaughan has also provides as-needed fertilizer preparation and removal, and feedstock hauling, grinding and pumping services. Thanks for keeping our digesters alive!