Harvesting value from crop-residues

Activated carbon (AC) is a common chemical used for water purification and wastewater remediation. It can be produced either from non-renewable fossil-based feedstock, or from more renewable biomass-based feedstock such as crop residues. Due to sustainability considerations, there is increasing push in to move production towards biomass. However, conventional biomass-to-AC production is highly polluting to local groundwater/air. In addition, due to the inefficient logistics of collecting crop residues from remote areas, smallholder farmers are typically excluded from this value chain; therefore, often, farmers simply burn their residues open-air.

We deploy small-scale, decentralized, and pollution-free processing technology that grants millions of smallholder farmers access to this lucrative market by cleanly upgrading their crop residues into an activated carbon precursor, thereby increasing their incomes by up to 40%. In 10 years, we can impact 120 million farmers, but the benefit is likely greatest for smallholder farmers with low to medium income levels.

After harvest, many crops produce residues on the farm that cannot be used as mulch or animal feed. With no feasible alternative, more than 170 million farmers worldwide are forced to burn them in the open, as it is the fastest and cheapest way of residue removal before sowing the next crop. Many times, these farmers are fined by local agencies, as open burning of residues contributes to air pollution that affects the respiratory health of nearby communities, including major cities such as New Delhi. Worldwide, more than $120 billion/year of crop residues are burned in the open, which could otherwise have been used productively to increase farmer incomes (Subramanian, 2016)

However, from the perspective of farmers, there is no feasible alternative to open-air residue burning. Many farmers we have interviewed have even offered to pay around $15/acre (around 3 labor-days/acre) to have balers or middlemen remove their residues in a timely manner from the field, but they have not found willing takers (Mohan, 2018). The reality is that crop residues are loose, wet, bulky, and geographically distributed, which make them very costly (more than $15/acre) to collect and transport for productive applications.

In contrast to the current activated carbon (AC) supply chain, where farmers have to spend enormous cost to haul raw crop residues to a centralized conversion facility, we are exclusively licensing technology from MIT that allows for on-site conversion of raw biomass into AC output. Imagine small-scale, low-cost, portable equipment that can be latched onto the back of tractors, shipping containers, or donkey carts, and be brought from farm to farm to locally upgrade the residues without external energy input. This allows rural farmers to add 5x more value to their residues before selling it. Furthermore, our technology allows for a much wider range of crop residues to be converted compared to the status quo, thereby opening up access to this lucrative supply chain for other poorer farmers. We sell our equipment to local AC producers who currently work with the farmers to procure crop residues and who import the AC product to places such as the U.S. and Europe. By deploying our portable equipment with their existing farmer networks in lieu of hauling raw biomass to their centralized facility, AC producers save ~90% in feedstock procurement cost, while enabling rural farmers to double increase their net incomes by 40%. 

Farmers are diverse, but take the example of Raspinder, a rice farmer. He nets $500/year from a 2.5-acre land. After harvest, he hurries to clear his land of 6 tons of rice straws so that he can plant again. Normally, he burns the straws, which causes smoke to linger in his village for a week, and contributes to smog in the nearby city. Recently the local police has threatened him with fines of as much as 30% of his net income, and he has become very scared. With our portable system, instead of burning his crop residues, he can earn an additional $200/year by selling the activated carbon (AC) output to the local AC supplier, double his income and avoid government fines. In 10 years, we can impact 120 million new male/female farmers like Raspinder of different ages, but the benefit is likely greatest for smallholder farmers with low to medium income levels. Beyond improving their lives, by providing a profitable output for crop residues, we also reduce residue burning and the health effects/deaths of smog upon 200 million people who reside within 100 km of these areas or nearby cities. 

By enabling Farmer Producer Organizations and/or small scale farm processing industries like coconut oil mills and rice mills to produce activated carbon precursor from their waste crop residues like paddy straws, coconut shells, and rice husks, we bring the activated carbon market to their doorsteps. Farmers stand a chance to earn up to 40% more by adding value to their crop residues and selling to activated carbon producers- a new business option for these communities enabled through technology & market networks, and very different from open burning of residues leading to severe pollution problems, and loss of potential income.

Current technology that enables the conversion of crop residues (biomass) into activated carbon (AC) relies on centralized, capital-expensive (~$500,000), and large-scale (100 tons/day) equipment such as rotary kilns. This requires massive amounts of loose, wet, and bulky raw materials to be collected from long distances, which is very expensive. Furthermore, this technology involves a thermochemical pre-conversion of turning crop residues into a charred precursor, which has two key disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that this pre-treatment step utilizes low-efficiency and polluting pit kilns or mound kilns that are highly polluting to the local water and air. The second disadvantage is that this step is often limited to a handful types of biomass, such as coconut shells and olive pits. This effectively excludes farmers growing other crop types from participating.

Our technology is based on a new chemical concept called oxygen-lean torrefaction (developed as company co-founder’s PhD thesis at MIT), which can lead to a new class of patent-pending, small-scale, low-cost, and portable biomass reactor designs that can be deployed in a decentralized manner, with a more flexible range of feedstock options. At the same time, the technology eliminates the traditional water and air pollution by more than 95%, while doubling the conversion’s energy efficiency by combining the thermochemical pre-conversion and the activation step into one. Our unique and proprietary control system enables a much wider range of biomass feedstock types and characteristics to be feasibly converted, thereby opening the market access to many more rural farmers with other crop types. 

The core technology consists of a new class a small-scale, feedstock-flexible, pollution-free, and autothermal biomass thermochemical treatment system designs previously developed and validated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a lab scale that we will exclusively license. At MIT, using a new chemical concept, the company co-founders developed a robust reactor system and demonstrated by experiment and modeling that the system can successfully process a range of input feedstock with different characteristics without needing any external heat or energy sources, and with significantly reduced (> 95%) emission of volatile gases or particulates to satisfy the local pollution standards. We also demonstrated that by adjusting certain flow rates, we can easily tune the reaction condition to satisfy the specific output requirements in the AC supply chain in spite of the highly variable input feedstock in a way that existing technologies cannot achieve. 

Reactor video

More details on the design and validation data can be found in co-founder’s PhD thesis (https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/...). Seven peer-reviewed articles based on the fundamental scientific work at MIT on the underlying technology have been published, and at least four more articles are under review or being planned in other journals. The seven published articles are available at the following DOI links: 10.1016/j.biortech.2012.07.018, 10.1016/j.biortech.2013.01.158, 10.1016/j.fuel.2014.07.047, 10.1007/978-3-319-20209-9_8, 10.1016/j.biombioe.2018.11.004, 10.1016/j.biombioe.2018.12.001, and 10.1016/j.energy.2019.05.194. MIT has also filed two U.S./PCT patents which the company will be licensing exclusively. The company has filed 3 more provisional applications pertaining to the reactor design and control systems.

Based on our interviews with the biomass-derived activated carbon producers (AC), many of them are experiencing an existential crisis, as raw material shortage coupled with government clampdown on the existing pollution conversion process have caused the input costs to skyrocket, making them unable to compete with fossil-derived AC for the market. This is forcing many biomass-derived AC producers to cut down their capacity or even close down their businesses. As part of our core activities, we will focus our efforts on sales & distribution of our units to AC producers, who have the incentive to deploy them in a decentralized manner with farmer groups as it will reduce collection and transportation costs up to 60% due to in-situ densification. We will pitch access to wider variety of biomass sources as raw materials, addressing their concerns of raw material shortage. As outputs, by adopting our technology, these activated carbon producers will save around 60% of their input raw material and labor costs, which roughly doubles their profitability in activated carbon and pays back their investment to us in less than one year. By deploying the technology at the site of the farmers, farmers will have the negotiating power to be paid more, as these farmers already have transparency over the daily prices of these value-added products through popular agricultural commodity apps such as Mookambika.  We see increasing the incomes of 120 million farmers in 10 years by up to 40% as the most key outcome of our work.

Currently we are beginning our first field pilot with a farmer’s cooperative in conjunction with the owner of United Carbons, an activated carbon (AC) producer company. United Carbons has agreed to purchase the output from this pilot. At a 2 ton/day capacity, this impacts around 20 farmers. This is also expected to create additional rural income opportunity for 5 full-time employees.

Within a year, we will scale our solution to 5 systems serving 250 farmers. This is expected to create additional rural income opportunity for 30 full-time employees.

By 2024, we expect to deploy around 1000 systems in the field through the activated carbon producers. This will involve working with 100 activated carbon producers who are willing to finance and commit to purchasing output from at least 50,000 local farmers. This is expected to create additional rural income opportunity for 6,000 full-time employees. Furthermore, at this point, we expect to have meaningful impact in reducing the local air and groundwater pollution associated with traditional activated carbon production. This is expected to benefit the health outcomes of around 2 million people living in the locality.

Initially we will operate the first test unit ourselves in collaboration with two local farmers’ cooperatives (CPC and SRM) in Udumalpet, India. This will allow us to produce samples that we can take to a local activated carbon (AC) producer (United Carbons) for validation. A successful outcome will be a financially profitable solution that proves the value proposition with respect to the farmers and the AC producer. 

Upon successful demonstration of the test unit, we will scale up to operate 5 additional units ourselves in collaboration additional farmers’ cooperatives by taking field support of Tata Trusts, in more diverse agricultural contexts. We will then approach AC producers like United Carbon to sell up to 20 units in their farmer networks. We will provide the training to their employees to run the equipment, and we will also work with a larger local fabricator (Mechano Engineering Company) to produce up to 20 units/batch. At this stage, we will also work with public players such as senior staff of India’s Pollution Control Board in requiring any new activated carbon processes use our clean-burning equipment and offering equipment subsidy. 

As we scale beyond our initial community, we will establish a licensing partnership with a large agricultural equipment manufacture. We already have established active working relationships with two such companies, Tata Agrico and Mahindra. This will support maintenance through their existing  dealer networks. Through this pathway, we will be able to reach at least 10 million farmers through AC producers in different regions by 2030. 

In terms of technical challenges, we need to demonstrate that our systems can operate under highly stringent requirements in remote settings, often without reliable access to electricity/energy or high-end maintenance services. In rural areas, when things break down, they need to be easily repaired using locally available materials, or else costly shutdowns will follow. While we already built a working prototype and solutions that can address the requirements named above, a larger field pilot needs to be implemented with the above-mentioned considerations in mind. 

In terms of control systems, in addition to ensuring a pollution-free conversion process, the final product from our systems must also meet the chemical requirements as defined by the activated carbon industry for different uses (e.g. filtration, purification, remediation, pharmaceuticals). Given that crop residues are highly diverse, this presents a significant challenge. 

In terms of effecting behavioral change, our ultimate beneficiaries (smallholder farmers) have very little resources and likely cannot finance our hardware systems. Therefore, we need to identify other wealthier financiers for whom our solution can demonstrate value and who have the capability of financing our systems upfront, and sufficiently motivate them to purchase and deploy our systems within their network of farmers. 

In terms of overcoming technical challenges, our team has 14 years of combined experience working in this market. From day one, we have been working closely with local manufacturers in India and considering off-the-shelf components to ensure that our design is consistent with local and industrial requirements. When parts are broken, they can also be maintained using local components and servicing. We have also been speaking to the relevant authorities and incorporating any regulatory (safety, emission, etc.) standards into our system’s design and operation. Tata Power has already committed to providing us space, expertise, industry/government connections, and past experiences in overcoming these challenges.

In terms of overcoming control system challenges, part of our core patent is the demonstration of a control strategy for the biomass reaction that can be modified to different types of biomass and tailor the output to the end users’ metrics, including those applicable to activated carbon. While we can never guarantee that our system will work universally for all types of biomass that we have not tested, we have a defined plan (and back-up) and technical advantage in overcoming this challenge. 

In terms of overcoming behavioral change barriers, we have pre-identified an existing off-take market for the residues in the form of activated carbon, demonstrate our systems’ ability to help activated carbon producers (who work closely with farmers) to reduce costs drastically, and allow these producers to finance and operate our systems for their own profit while also reaching and benefiting the farmers simultaneously. 

Full time staff: 5

Part time staff:1

Interns: 6

Contractors: 1

Our team combines the technical depth with market expertise in this sector. Vidyut Mohan brings industry-specific knowledge in the activated carbon supply chain, is well connected with the different stakeholders ranging from the rural charcoal producers in India and Indonesia to the large activated carbon and water filtration companies in the U.S. Thus, he understands how our innovation will affect the different stakeholders, and how to design our product to keep them as happy as possible. Diana Nielsen and Philip Treanor bring 75 years of experience commercializing clean tech projects and understand what it takes to move forward the market, financing, and team goals. Dr. Kevin Kung and Professor Ahmed Ghoniem have been developing the core technology at MIT since 2012 and have a deep understanding of the ongoing technical challenges for scaling. Prior to co-founding this company, the team members have also worked together in other capacity in biomass since 2011.

Starting from just a concept that no one believed in back in 2012, the team has convinced MIT to put in more than $600,000 in the foundational R&D, built a compelling commercial case, and convinced prominent agencies such Echoing Green Foundation, Tata Trusts and Tata Power to provide further commercialization support. Our team has a track record of execution and success, and expect to continue this momentum. 

To de-risk our technology, our company relies on ongoing technical collaborations with Professor Ahmed Ghoniem’s group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In India, for field sample testing, we work with Prof. Mahajani’s group at Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. For field deployment, we have received the support of Tata Power which provides space, industrial expertise and government connections. We also are recruiting Marico Innovation Foundation and Tata Trusts who have access to a large and diverse farmer base. As for potential scaling partners, the Tata Trusts and Tata Power, which have so far provided initial financial and in-kind support to our project in India, remain actively engaged and are open to introducing us to long-term distribution and manufacturing partner at Tata Agrico at the right time in the future. Another potential manufacturing and distribution partner, Mahindra and Mahindra, proactively reached out to us about a prospective partnership and we are in initial discussions with them. As part of our scaling strategy also relies on corporate partnership with large activated carbon consumers such as Brita and Coca-Cola to clean up their upstream supply chain, we envision that these are valid hypothetical prospective partners. Through a National Science Foundation Innovation Corps award, we have initiated the contact with some of these companies to better understand their priorities and decision-making process.

Our business model resembles that of a Canon inkjet printer: we sell the hardware cheaply but charge an ongoing usage fee for the service. While farmers are the ultimate beneficiaries, our solution will be financed by an existing network of activated carbon (AC) producers as customers. These activated carbon producers already regularly work with around 100-500 local farmers to source the input biomass needed for their activated carbon operations, and our solution will help them save 60% of their operation costs, effectively doubling their net income. These activated carbon producers will purchase our mobile units at the location of the local farmers and deploy their own employees for the local operation. We will provide the training for their personnel and maintenance service initially. As we scale up, we will partner with an existing agricultural hardware manufacturer and distributor (for a 15% margin) to distribute the equipment and provide the maintenance through their existing network of dealers. Furthermore, we will also charge an ongoing usage fee. This per-ton usage fee will be enforced by our proprietary automated control system capable of sensing/running the core reaction safely and stably without needing any external energy, maintaining a consistent fertilizer quality in spite of the highly variable biomass input characteristics. Every time an end user turns on the equipment, our control system will know, and will debit the usage fee from the account. This way, we ensure that our end users produce good-quality activated carbon output in a pollution-free way. 

In the long term, we grow as a for-profit company, where we sell our equipment cheaply (at cost) but charge an ongoing per-ton usage fee based on the service we provide via our proprietary control system to ensure that our end users’ reactors are run safely and stably, producing final product of acceptable quality to the activated carbon (AC) standards despite the fluctuating biomass input materials. In the short term, in order to fund our initial field pilot with our end users (the AC producers as well as the farmers’ cooperative in Tamil Nadu), we will rely on grant-based funding, such as this one, USAID, and other foundations, based on the various social and environmental impacts that we provide. To continue the R&D development of subsequent iterations of the systems, we will also rely mostly on government grants such as SBIR (US), SBIRI & BIG (India). After we have proven our initial customer base and are starting to scale up the production to meet growing purchase orders, we will rely on impact investment capital to help us set up a manufacturing and distribution pipeline. A part of this will also come from our strategic manufacturing and distribution partner. 

Apart from financial support upon selection, being part of the Solve community can help us in two ways. Firstly, our product is new, and will only see ownership among communities if we are able to assure minimum or easy behavioral change. We would love to tap into the community of MIT Solve and learn through prior experiences of scaling and distributing new hardware technology among small holder farmers in resource constrained settings. Secondly, enabling different kinds of biomass to produce activated carbon is a game changer for our business. We would like to take the help of relevant technical experts who can guide us in matching different biomass with different use cases of activated carbon such as water purification, air purification, batteries etc. 

We would like to partner with organizations that can directly impact the scaling up of our business, which we believe will add the most value to us at this point in time. Although activated carbon production happens in India and other developing countries, it is mostly exported to US, Europe and Japan, where it is utilized for various applications. We want to work with the relevant companies and organizations in these countries as we believe they have the power to transform the value chain to become more environmentally sustainable and financially equitable.

We would like to partner with organizations that can directly impact the scaling up of our business. In particular, we would like to partner with downstream players in the activated carbon value chain such as the activated carbon companies in the US like Cabot and Calgon, who buy activated carbon made in India. We would also like to partner with companies that use activated carbon such as companies that make water filters (Eg. Brita). These partnerships will enable us to put pressure on stakeholders further upstream to adopt more cleaner, efficient and environmentally friendly technologies that bring greater value to farmers.

By enabling Farmer Producer Organizations and/or small scale farm processing industries like coconut oil mills and rice mills to produce activated carbon precursor from their waste crop residues like paddy straws, coconut shells, and rice husks, we bring the activated carbon market to their doorsteps. Farmers stand a chance to earn up to 40% more by adding value to their crop residues and selling to activated carbon producers- a new business option for these communities enabled through technology & market networks, and a very different scenario from the current status quo  open burning of residues leading to severe pollution problems, and loss of potential income.

Our technology enables decentralization of activated carbon production, thereby shifting more value to farmers and small scale farming businesses, thereby creating new jobs in rural areas and promoting inclusive entrepreneurship.