Harvesting Value from Agricultural and Forest Waste

Takachar is on a mission to fight climate change by transforming massive amounts of waste biomass into marketable products around the world. Worldwide, $120 billion worth of crop and forest residues are burned in the open each year.  If used productively, these residues represent a $10 billion market globally. Takachar's process can be a profitable way to make economic use of this biomass while reducing air pollution. Using a novel concept called oxygen-lean torrefaction, Takachar has developed and patented the design of small-scale, low-cost, portable equipment to convert waste biomass into solid fuel, fertilizer, and other specialty chemicals. Compared to the process of sending waste biomass to centralized conversion facilities, Takachar's system is more profitable by significantly reducing the logistics cost of hauling loose, wet, and bulky biomass (representative picture attached).

About the Speaker:
Vidyut Mohan is the co-founder and CEO of Takachar, a social enterprise enabling farmers to prevent the open burning of their waste farm residues and earn extra income by converting the residues into value-added chemicals like activated carbon on-site. Passionate about energy access and supporting rural livelihoods, Vidyut became interested in biomass-based energy/chemical development due to its untapped potential and close association with farmers. After initial exploration and research for his master’s thesis at TU Delft, he returned to India to work with village communities in the Himalayas to convert pine needle waste into a marketable charcoal-based product. This work led him to discover a way to dramatically scale farm residue utilization through technology, as well as to support farm-based livelihoods—which led to the formation of Takachar. In the past, he worked with Simpa Networks, where he developed Pay-as-you-go solar home systems for rural households in India.  Vidyut is a 2019 Echoing Green Fellow and  2020 UNEP Young Champion of the Earth. Takachar received the Earthshot Prize in 2021 for the 'Clean our Air' category.