Lagos based Biochar Industrial Group has secured $1.5 million in pre seed funding to expand its efforts to convert agricultural waste from food processors across Africa into biochar and carbon removal credits.
The funding round was led by BREEGA, with participation from Catalyst Fund. Mulago Foundation also provided non dilutive funding, the company announced on September 17.
BIG plans to install pyrolysis equipment at food processing facilities, allowing agricultural waste such as nut shells, corn cobs, husks and stalks to be processed close to where it is generated.
Through the process, the company converts the waste into biochar, a stable form of carbon that can remain in soil for hundreds or even thousands of years. The resulting carbon removal credits are then sold, while the biochar is returned to agricultural supply chains for use as a soil amendment.
The company says the approach could create a new source of income for food processors while putting agricultural waste that might otherwise have little or negative economic value to productive use.
“Africa has natural advantages to lead the most scalable and cost effective biomass based carbon removal globally,” BIG Chief Executive Officer Ikenna Nzewi said.
He added that partnerships with agricultural processors could help transform local waste problems into a wider climate solution.
BIG estimates that Africa generates around one billion tons of non edible agricultural biomass every year. It expects the volume to increase as the continent’s population grows and agricultural production expands.
The company uses a process known as continuous pyrolysis, which heats biomass at temperatures above 600 degrees Celsius in the absence of oxygen. This prevents much of the carbon captured by plants from being released back into the atmosphere through decomposition, while producing biochar that can be applied to farmland.
BIG said field trials involving its biochar have recorded crop yield increases of up to 50 percent.
The company was founded by Nzewi alongside Chief Technology Officer Uzoma Ayogu and Chief Operating Officer Isaiah Udotong. Before launching BIG, the three worked at Releaf Earth, a Y Combinator backed agricultural processing company.
During their time there, they helped develop industrial machinery, operated four factories and established supply chains linking thousands of smallholder farmers with processing facilities.
That experience is now being applied to the carbon removal industry, where interest in durable carbon removal is growing as companies look for ways to address emissions that are difficult to eliminate through conventional methods.
Tosin Faniro Dada, a partner at BREEGA, said BIG is addressing an existing industrial waste challenge while creating what the company describes as repeatable, audit grade carbon credits.
Unlike large centralized carbon removal projects, BIG plans to place its equipment within or close to existing food processing operations.
The company believes this model could reduce the cost of transporting bulky agricultural waste while creating local technical employment and connecting biochar production directly to established agricultural networks.
With the new funding, BIG plans to expand its partnerships with factories and scale its Biochar as a Service model across Sub Saharan Africa.
