About

Riffel Consulting, LLC

Riffel Consulting, LLC, is a North Carolina-based independent consulting firm providing a wide range of environmental services associated with the production of liquid and gaseous fuels and electricity, including life cycle assessment, sustainability analysis, custom tool development, policy analysis, business strategy development and proposal support. Brent Riffel launched Riffel Consulting, LLC in 2012 to provide clients with the highest quality services and products that maximize value to the client. Mr. Riffel works closely with clients to refine the project scope and objectives and customizes the analysis and deliverables to suit the client’s purpose and maximize value.

Riffel Consulting has unsurpassed expertise in all of the publicly available life cycle modeling tools and has developed a suite of proprietary life cycle models (LCMs) that can model any production pathway flexibly—see LCMs page for more details. Our expertise and tool suite mean that we can meet aggressive project timelines and respond to revisions quickly and effectively. We value client relations and client satisfaction above all and we will work hard to exceed your expectations and develop a mutually beneficial long-term relationship as you continue to develop your business and projects.

Brent Riffel

Brent (CV) has 13 years of experience conducting life cycle analysis of renewable and alternative fuel and chemical pathways and 10 years working professionally as a consultant.

He has a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Pomona College and a master’s degree in Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) from the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at UC Davis. He became interested in alternative fuels and feedstocks in 2000 when he first learned about hydrogen fuel technology. The exotic equipment needed to handle hydrogen and the potential to reduce tailpipe emissions to water fascinated him.

Brent was also very interested in atmospheric chemistry because of the mesmerizing complexity and beauty of the atmosphere and atmospheric sciences. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, Brent worked at the NASA Ames Research Center recreating tropospheric aerosol chemistry in a laboratory. He conducted experiments converting methanol into methyl nitrate in mixed nitric acid/sulfuric acid solutions while replicating the conditions present in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere. The study investigated a mechanism for aggregating organics in acidic aerosols; the work has been published in the Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry (see publications).

Recognizing his lack of enthusiasm for laboratory work, Brent learned about the TTP program at UC Davis, which offered flexible, multidisciplinary degrees in a wide range of topics necessary to tackle today’s complicated energy and environmental challenges. During his time at UC Davis he learned about life cycle assessment, alternative energy technologies, thermodynamics, economics, travel modeling, public planning and transit, atmospheric science, engineering and many more. In 2005, Brent began working with Dr. Mark Delucchi, a research scientist at UC Davis, who developed the Life Cycle Emissions Model (LEM) and analyzes a wide range of environmental, economic, impacts associated with transportation systems and fuels. Mr. Riffel researched the indirect impact of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions on climate controlling atmospheric species (methane, ozone and aerosols) in the scientific literature and developed regional production potentials. These parameters were input into LEM to facilitate calculation of the overall carbon dioxide equivalency factor (CEF) associated with NOx. Mr. Riffel wrote his thesis on this work.

While completing his thesis, Mr. Riffel began working as a graduate student intern at the California Air Resources Board (ARB). At the ARB, Brent managed the DriveClean website and performed many functions to advance the hydrogen highway initiative. He analyzed the life cycle carbon intensity of hydrogen fuel pathways, managed a GIS database of hydrogen refueling stations and developed documents about the hydrogen program and hydrogen technology. The most exciting part of the job was driving around Sacramento and Davis in a Mercedes fuel cell car and refueling at the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP).

After completing his Master’s thesis in 2007, Mr. Riffel began working with Stefan Unnasch at Life Cycle Associates. Mr. Unnasch had just left Tiax, LLC, to start his own consulting firm. Mr. Unnasch and Mr. Riffel operated Life Cycle Associates for the next three years before expanding and hiring two more employees. During his time at Life Cycle Associates, Mr. Riffel worked for over 50 clients including biofuel developers, fossil fuel producers, government agencies, non-profits and trade organizations. He has conducted hundreds of life cycle assessments for a wide range of purposes, including biofuel certification, business strategy development, grant proposals and product benchmarking. He gained expertise in a wide range of life cycle tools and worked with Mr. Unnasch to develop a more powerful modeling tool than the models currently available. Mr. Riffel left Life Cycle Associates in 2012 to launch his own firm, Riffel Consulting, where he continues to offer the same great consulting services while continuing to expand his services and tools.

Experience

Mr. Riffel’s work has supported the development of fuel legislation in California and supported fuel pathway certification under several fuel programs, including the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), and the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED) program. He supported the California Air Resources Board in developing fuel pathway carbon intensity scores under the LCFS, drafting supporting documentation and responding to stakeholder comments. He has also worked on behalf of fuel producers seeking fuel pathway certification under the LCFS through a method 2a or 2b application. He has conducted fuel cycle analyses for several clients in support of certification under the EPA RFS2 and supported clients through the petition process to establish carbon intensity scores under the RFS2. He met with EPA on behalf of clients to present fuel pathway results and to challenge the RFS2 treatment of advanced corn ethanol. He has conducted fuel pathway analysis in support of certification under the ISCC RED framework, in which detailed and fully documented results are reviewed by certified auditors and he has explained analyses through conference calls to many auditors, leading to successful certification under the RED system. Mr. Riffel continues to work for a diverse group of fuel producers in support of certification under the LCFS, RFS2 and RED.

Mr. Riffel worked for the California Energy Commission calculating sustainability results for fuels used in California, including criteria pollutants, toxic emissions, water consumption, water discharge, land use change emissions and biodiversity impacts. This project analyzed a wide range of environmental criteria beyond the traditional energy and emission results and created a flexible framework that may be expanded to analyze any environmental criteria for any fuel pathway scenario. He has presented the results at the CEC and met with CEC staff several times.

He has worked closely with the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) and the Volpe Center to develop a sustainability framework and criteria for evaluating renewable jet fuels. He worked for the coalition of Northeast states (NESCAUM) calculating carbon intensity scores for fuel used in the Northeast under a potential Northeast LCFS. For this project, Mr. Riffel developed an interface tool to run the model using Northeast data. He developed a home heating pellet fuel pathway based on a wide range of biomass sources and drafted a report documenting all of the fuel pathway analyses.

Michelle Myers

Michelle Myers joined Riffel Consulting in April 2014 as the Director of Business Operations and Marketing. She has a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University. This program exposed Michelle to the multi-disciplinary approaches to environmental sustainability from both the private and public sectors including corporate social responsibility, energy law and policy,  environmental entrepreneurship, and program management.

Michelle has over a decade of public policy experience non-profit, public service, and consulting with over 8 years working on climate policy in California. Michelle served as the director of the most well-established Bay Area environmental advocacy organizations for five years. With Michelle’s expertise in environmental review and regulation, she contributes directly to special projects that analyze environmental impacts. She manages the firm’s projects and workflow, communications, and marketing, seeking new business opportunities and building strategic partnerships. She ensures that client’s needs are anticipated and met and coordinates projects and operations at Riffel Consulting.