Episode 33 | Agricultural Waste for Sustainable Energy Security - Practicality & Opportunities. скачать в хорошем качестве

Episode 33 | Agricultural Waste for Sustainable Energy Security - Practicality & Opportunities.

In this episode of The Lasgidi Farmer Podcast, we sat down with ‪@Atta_ched‬ Founder and CEO of ‪@TrashformasNigeria‬ Nigeria Limited, to discuss her work converting agricultural wastes such as animal manure and crop residues into clean, affordable biogas for cooking and sustainable energy. Thara opens with her assessment of biogas prospects in Nigeria and Africa: While the global biogas market exceeds $100 billion and is projected to surpass $200 billion by 2034, Africa has nearly 120,000 plants (with Nigeria holding ~39% of the share), yet the continent represents just 2% globally. She highlights growing momentum from government focus on vehicular fuel alternatives, increasing demand for clean energy, and biomethane opportunities, stressing that true sustainability comes from viewing agricultural waste as a reliable resource rather than relying on infrastructure gaps to generate more waste. We explore the origin story of Trashformas. The name cleverly combines "trash" and "transform," reflecting Thara's mission to solve real pain points in biogas distribution and affordability. Driven by a deep passion for impact and sustainability, she founded the company despite early setbacks like an unacknowledged presentation to a ministry proving that great ideas often start disregarded but persist through persistence and love for the work. Thara clarifies what biogas truly is -produced via anaerobic digestion of agricultural wastes, it captures methane (a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO₂ in the short term) and converts it into clean energy. She addresses environmental debates, noting that preventing methane emissions from decomposing waste is a net climate positive, even as CO₂ is discussed more due to its longer atmospheric lifespan and dominance in energy emissions. Comparing biogas to LNG amid Nigeria's vast over 210 TCF gas reserves and rising production, Thara explains biogas's distinct advantages: It's decentralized, renewable, reduces waste pollution, supports rural energy access, and offers environmental health benefits by avoiding fossil fuel extraction impacts, positioning it as a complementary, greener substitute rather than direct competitor. On feedstock challenges with Nigeria generating over 144 million tonnes of agricultural waste annually, Thara details how variability in composition, contaminants, logistics, and competition affect consistency and costs. Trashformas circumvents this through strategic contractual partnerships with farms: Providing inputs, ensuring quality standards, and building reliable clusters for predictable supply, quantity, and quality, enabling affordable production and retailing. We discuss funding realities in Nigeria's waste-to-energy sector: high capital costs (₦7–14 million for small plants) pose barriers, but Trashformas has leveraged wins like the ₦15 million prize as first runner-up on Fund It Forward and other innovative approaches to scale. Thara outlines Trashformas' unique value proposition: Targeting schools, institutions, and households with convenient pre-filled biogas cylinders to overcome distribution hurdles, differentiating from small-scale plants. She highlights value chain opportunities for students and entrepreneurs, from production to distribution and maintenance. Aligning with government initiatives for off-grid power in tertiary institutions and energy diversification (including CNG), Thara shares what more support is needed: better financing access, policy incentives, and ecosystem building to help existing producers scale and encourage new entrants. Reflecting on the biggest challenges in building Trashformas (finance) Thara shares their challenges and innovative solutions they adopted: partnership, focus on purpose and developing capacity and also applying for opportunities. Looking to 2030, Thara outlines ambitious goals for scaling impact, expanding users base, growing revenue, and contributing to Nigeria's emergence as a biogas powerhouse.