Earthshot Prize-Winning 'Takachar' By Vidyut Mohan Eliminates 95% Smoke Emissions
"India is one of the world's largest agricultural waste producers... There is a lot of burning happening," said Indian entrepreneur Vidyut Mohan, who is changing the route of climate solutions with far-reaching projects spread across India and Kenya. With the award-winning Takachar, Mohan is the undisputed master of putting waste to use.
The visionary Takachar was set up by Vidyut Mohan along with his peer Kevin Kung who have successfully created and deployed a device to convert agricultural waste into fertiliser and fuel. The recipient of the first-ever Earthshot Prize, Mohan's initiative highlights how waste doesn't have to be compartmentalised away, but instead may be employed to create other useful products.
"I'm passionate about how renewable energy technologies can be used to create livelihood opportunities while solving the climate crisis," Mohan told us in the backdrop of TEDxGateway Climate Countdown 2021 (supported by Government Of Maharashtra).
Why India needs Takachar
India is at the centre of Mohan's discourse, "where so many millions... need to climb up the income ladder and become rich while at the same time [not] destroying the environment."
"Small-scale decentralised equipment" is how Mohan described Takachar's devices which help farmers turn agricultural waste into marketable products, giving them a chance at maximising their income. "These will enable us to create value closer to where these rural communities live rather than large-scale centralised units which are only affordable to people with deep pockets or large corporations."
Calling the impact of Takachar's tech multi-dimensional, Mohan explained how it not only helps in "rural livelihood creation but also helps in mitigating air pollution and sequestering carbon emissions."
Takachar's magic machine
According to Vidyut Mohan, the co-founder and CEO of Takachar, the machine'a strength is not only in its small-scale and low-cost offerings, but also in its modular build-up.
"It's made up of simple parts that can be assembled by people living in those areas itself and it doesn't take a lot of time to set up," Mohan told us. In fact, the novel tech could be put on wheels soon, for it sits on the chassis of a trailer itself.?
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Takachar is helping farmers generate income while getting effectively dealing with waste. In India's Uttarakhand, Takachar's tech was first deployed in Murari, back in 2013-14 when the machine was in its nascent stage.
"We worked with the community there and the equipment utilised local pine needle residue that is shed from the forest and causes forest fires. People collected that and were paid for that." This, he told us, helped them double the farmers' income for the month.
What became of the pine needles was fuel, which was then used by local restaurants (dhabas).?
Localisation matters!
Based on this pilot model, the brains behind Takachar have localised their products to suit the needs of different terrain. For instance, Takachar is entering commercial pilots in South India with coconut shells and activated carbon as an application. In North India, Takachar is working with rice straws with fertiliser as an application. That's not all! In Kenya, Takachar already has a pilot project where rice husks are converted into fertiliser, later sold to 5,000 farmers.
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The community is intrinsic to Takachar's vision. "It has to be co-creative in nature... farmers welcome unique ways of utilising their own waste." On their part, Takachar try to minimise the scope of change in hopes of making adoption of new tech easier.
The work doesn't end with the creation waste-to-use machines. Market access is an important aspect of Takachar's work "because only that will drive the adoption of the technology and the product."
Highlighting the localised differences that warrant varied approaches, Mohan explained how turning waste into useful products varies from North to South India, calling it "context-specific." With differences in the base object, there is also a variation in the business model. "One has to scale across these individual leashes."
What does Takachar's machine do?
"It's essentially like roasting coffee beans," Mohan told Indiatimes. Known as torrefaction, the process throws "agricultural waste or forest waste in controlled amounts of air that takes out the low-energy containing molecules and leaves behind a dense carbon-rich material."?
This is where the magic happens. The dense carbon-rich material is what's used to create fuels, fertilisers, or activated carbon depending on the base material used and the region where the tech is employed.?By taking on stubble burning, Takachar is able to eliminate 95-98 per cent smoke emissions.
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While Takachar and other tech pioneers may be working on novel solutions, Mohan believes "everything needs to be tied up" to address the magnitude of the problem.
"We have solutions on the ground already," Mohan said while referring to rice straws which are either incorporated in the soil or be utilised for "productive purposes." As opposed to large-scale plants, Mohan believes smaller localised plants that treat agricultural waste are the need of the hour.
"Our product is 100th of the cost of many of those large-scale centralised technologies," Mohan said, while claiming that farmers and farmer organisations are the owners and operators of their machines.
Why nothing changes in India
"People need to make air pollution an election issue and hold the political class accountable," Mohan suggested while adding that even on a normal day in Delhi, the "air quality is quite bad."
"Are we as a society, happy with that status quo," Mohan exclaimed while talking about how air pollution levels remain in the "good" zone only for a few days every year in Delhi. "I don't see people raising their voice against that. And unless we don't do that, the political class is not really going to care," Mohan said.
Until then, Takachar and Mohan are helping farmers in two ways,?For starters, they get a chance to create extra income by selling their waste to Takachar. In addition, local farmers are trained by Takachar to run the machine effectively, creating scope of livelihood opportunities.
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"Our mission is to drastically scale the utilisation of agricultural waste to fight climate change, to reduce air pollution and to provide rural value," Mohan said. So far, Takachar has been part of two incubation programmes of the Indian government, with third one currently underway.
What do you think about Takachar's ambitious and novel tech that provides livelihood to farmers, tackles climate change, and also reduces pollution? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.?For the latest in tech and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
