VISION: Ensuring the clean energy revolution reaches the poorest and most marginalised in Nigeria and DRC through integrating innovative clean energy technologies within Mobile Power's energy ecosystem to replace fossil-fuel generators and wood-biomass for cooking, creating a 'Distributed Renewable Energy System' (DRES) OBJECTIVES: This experimental development project will demonstrate a solution that integrates generation, distribution and use of clean-energy in rural settings. This requires new technology - a multipurpose 'MOPO PowerBox' - and incorporation of household and productive use appliances within the Mobile Power business model. Mobile Power has an established presence serving 53,000 frequent customers in 180 communities. The objective of this project is to see if it is possible to acquire and combine existing technological, market knowledge and business models with the aim of providing services to rural customers. Pyrogenesys' waste-to-energy technology will generate electricity that will be distributed by Mobile Power's innovative battery storage technology to power: * clean cooking in partnership with Gamos/MECs, * grain milling in partnership with AgSol * sustainable cooling- refrigeration and fans using Mobile Power's smart modular inverter. INNOVATION: 1. Mobile Power has a unique power delivery ecosystem and business model through installing solar-powered battery charging Hubs (MOPO Hubs). Batteries are rented via a 'pay-per-use' model at 70-80% lower cost than fossil fuel alternatives. Our secure, smart battery ecosystem remotely tracks MOPO Batteries through the entire rental cycle making losses to theft negligible. 2. Pyrogenesys have a proprietary pyrolysis technology for producing electricity from agricultural waste. In addition to solar, MOPO Hubs will be charged using Pyrogenesys's technology to enable battery charging at night. 3. DC Appliances * AgSol has a low-cost, high-efficiency MicroMill for grain milling. The MicroMill can process food 50x faster than a human can, thereby transforming a one hour manual task, or a time-wasting journey to the nearest mill, into a quick and easy job. * MECs/Gamos have developed an affordable low-cost Electric Pressure Cooker (EPC). Mobile Power will integrate these appliances to be powered by MOPO Batteries through developing a 'MOPO PowerBox'; a multi-battery docking system enabling three battery configurations needed to power different size appliances. AREAS OF FOCUS:These integrated technologies will be demonstrated in 100 rural off-grid communities in new markets (Nigeria and DRC, the two largest African markets) in real life operating conditions, iterating the business model to demonstrate a commercially scalable product and services that will unlock future sales and further investment.

The rising concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, currently about 420 ppm, is already causing extensive damage globally. Thus, there ´s an urgent need to deploy CO2 removal (CDR) at very large scale to help to keep the temperature rise under 2C° (1.5C° would be better). Until recently, apart from academic research into a wide portfolio of approaches, little has been done to launch the necessary exponential growth of CDR over the next few decades. The current self-regulated market relies on an unsatisfactory patchwork of thirdparty verification of the removals achieved at individual sites. The sector has been negatively influenced by a lack of regulation and high-quality standards. This has allowed low-quality carbon credits to enter the market, lowering credibility and prices to levels at which high-quality permanent removals cannot compete. The Member States need the EC to intervene to kick-start a transparent and properly regulated market for high-grade CDR delivery. The purpose of the C-SINK project is to deliver to the EC a complete package of workedup proposals to support a new or amended European legal/regulatory framework to bring high quality CDRs into the market. That package will contain pre-standards (in CEN format) covering requirements and methodologies for sampling, testing and QMS (ISO9000) upon which to build monitoring, reporting and verification systems. It will also include proposals to cover (a) environmental, social-impact and governance issues, and (b) the means of building trust in the market. This will encourage entrepreneurs to demonstrate effective and safe CDR projects and to make large investments, thus allowing the market to evolve to tackle the climate crisis. The C-SINK consortium includes organizations from 11 countries with complementary skills and expertise in the different CDR technologies, the writing of CEN and ISO standards, climate law, carbon trading, and in all of the relevant environmental and social issues

This consortium, let by Carnot Ltd, seeks to develop the world's first profitable rice-straw bioenergy demonstrator for a rural community in Lombok Island, Indonesia. Rice straw is separated from the grains during harvesting and either combusted (producing CO2) or left to decompose (producing methane with 25\* Global Warming Potential) due to challenges with harvesting it, particularly in flooded paddy fields (a common occurrence). Straw Innovations has created innovative technology that overcomes the barriers to harvesting it in all weathers, unlocking a potential 300Mt of rice straw generated in Asia every year. Rice straw has high ash content (around 20%), comprising about 75% silica. This, combined with other components in the straw (chlorine, potassium) causes melting and slagging / fouling in boilers when combusted. Hence, it is not an easy fuel to chop or combust. PyroGenesys have developed a lower-temperature pyrolysis process which can convert rice straw into Biochar, a carbon-sequestering fertiliser that can be used by the rice farmers, and biofuel. The carbon sequestered can be traded on carbon removal markets. Surplus biofuel not used to generate electricity can be sold. Electricity is a low-value commodity and renewable electricity projects will typically require very large scale to be profitable and attract funding required from investors. PyroGenesys' process solves this problem by opening up two very high-value revenue streams. Carnot is developing ceramic engine gensets with double the efficiency of state-of-the-art diesel gensets, capable of operating on all fuels. These will provide electricity to the rice mills as their base load as well as electricity to a rural community. Integrating Carnot's gensets enables revenues generated by biofuel sales to be maximised. Indonesia: * Is the world's 5th largest GHG emitter. * Is the largest producer of biofuels worldwide. * Has mandated to convert a significant portion of its palm oil into FAME biodiesel. There is a reluctance to move to renewable energy due to fossil fuel sunk costs/subsidies and no proven profitable off-grid low-carbon energy business model. This demonstrator project aims to be the catalyst to breaking the deadlock and unleashing investment into Indonesia's enormous renewable energy potential. Key project outputs: * Pilot-scale demonstration of business model feasibility * 200,000kg rice-straw feedstock; * 76,000kg value-added-biochar/53,200kg carbon sequestration/80,000kg biofuel; * 2.28MWh electricity provided to rice mill.

Agriculture plays a significant role in the Nigerian economy, contributing 22.35% GDP (2021) and employing \>70% of its population at subsistence level(1). Onions are a lucrative, dry season irrigated crop and ~2 Mt/annum are produced, largely in Northern Nigeria. Opportunities for onion farmers are not fully realised, due to low investment in agronomic practices, and post-harvest losses (up to 50%). Traditional drying of onions could be replaced by a cool supply chain from field to market, however, access to energy for chilling hampers this initiative. The Harvest Cool project represents stakeholders from farming business, agricultural services, and technology providers who will deliver an integrated energy system to develop a low carbon cold storage system for onions grown in Nigeria. The partnership comprises PyroGenesys (biomass pyrolysis technology); Lavender Fields (agricultural produce aggregator and marketer); the Nigeria Agribusiness Group and Agrolog (agricultural extension services, Nigeria) and University College London (Life Cycle Assessment input). The project builds on a feasibility study carried out by Lavender Fields, identifying farming communities which sell to a major onion market (Karfi) in Kano, Nigeria, with a demonstrable need to develop cool supply chains for perishable crops. The project is innovative in bringing together unique engineering designs which address cold storage for transport from the field to a central storage point. The project is also innovative in the conception of a business model which considers energy provision; the benefits of food waste reduction; adding value to low income farming communities; and a circular carbon farming system with potential to improve agronomic conditions and carbon sequestration in soils. The project will be assessed quantitatively through Life Cycle Assessment of global warming potential (GWP) of the overall system and qualitatively through a programme of community interactions, demonstrating the project's contribution to addressing SDG7 Affordable and Clean Energy and SDG13 Climate Change. REFERENCES (1) https://www.fao.org/nigeria/fao-in-nigeria/nigeria-at-a-glance/en/

Transport in Nigeria is reliant on fuel that is expensive, often poor quality & reliant on government subsidy. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producing country but subsidises fuel resulting in a cost to the state. Technical advances in electric vehicles in China and India has seen an explosion in cheap electric motorbikes and electric agricultural tricycles. Africa has the richest renewable energy resources on the planet in the form of solar and biomass. However the issue is power distribution not generation. An innovate battery technology is needed to unlock an electric vehicle revolution in rural Africa. Mobile Power has designed and tested an energy distribution ecosystem that supplies affordable, clean power to poor households and enterprises in off-grid communities across West Africa using a pay-as-you-go smart battery rental system. The core innovation is in the cost-effective distribution of electricity off-grid. Mobile Power's batteries are charged at solar charging stations called "MOPO Hubs". The MOPO Batteries are then rented directly from the Hub or distributed through MOPO Agents using our smart battery technology. Our inbuilt security system prevents unauthorised activation of battery packs and unauthorised charging. This project will focus on the rural Nigeria market providing clean affordable power to 75 villages by: 1. REPLACING HOUSEHOLD GENERATORS: The MOPO Batteries provide electricity for households and micro-enterprises for phone charging, lights, TVs, radios and run other DC appliances such as freezers, sewing machines or agricultural machinery. 2. IMPROVING RURAL TRANSPORT NETWORKS: The MOPO Batteries will power electric motorbikes and agricultural tricycles, using a battery swap model, renting out the motorbikes and batteries. This rental model makes it affordable to the market - cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives. BIOMASS PILOT: Our MOPO Hubs will be powered mostly by solar but we will also charge the batteries using electricity generated from cassava waste through the PyroGenesys' PyroPower process. A site has already been identified in Oyo State as a pilot site. This will demonstrate our model with multiple renewable energy sources. Women make up 60-80% of the Nigerian farmers and yet have significantly less access to motorised transport than men. This is associated with typical gender-related roles (greater responsibility for children), gender-related financial and economic situations (less access to money) and gender-related expectations about access to transport. Tearfund Nigeria will work in these 75 communities to provide Transforming Masculinities training that has been proven to improve gender equality and women's access to clean electricity and transport.

PyroPower is a containerised 100 kW waste to energy technology developed by PyroGenesys and ICMEA-UK in Energy Catalyst Round 6 (ECR6). The conversion of agricultural waste to renewable electricity, process heat and biofuels simultaneously, underpins PyroPower's novel multi-revenue ability to provide reliable, affordable, renewable electricity in off-grid communities. Project partner Mobinet will facilitate access to formal banking services, microfinance and credit using their SIMPAY mobile banking platform. Proactive engagement and facilitation of women farmers and women-owned and run businesses, and wider engagement with disadvantaged groups to ensure they are included and their specific priorities and needs are being met, will be prioritised by all partners. ATMANCorp owns a 700 hectare cassava farm and flour mill in Oyo State and will host the PyroPower pilot along with a Micro Enterprise Park (MEP) and guarantee the supply of agricultural waste. The pilot will provide biofuel to a 250kva genset used to generate power for the factory and MEP and supply culinary-grade steam used for sterilising food processing lines in the factory. Aston University will build on their biofuel work with PyroGenesys in ECR7, to develop a continuous liquid biofuels process for producing diesel and kerosene. Manufacturing methods required to scale up the process for commercial production, will be developed by ICMEA-UK. Introduction of these liquid biofuels to the Nigerian market, in the form of renewable alternatives to diesel and kerosene, will be managed by Ardova PLC, a major Nigerian hydrocarbon reseller that supplies petroleum products to around 500 filling stations across the country. Within 5 years of project start, lessons from the pilot will inform the rollout of 100 commercial PyroPower installations across Ardova's filling station network. Deploying Mobinet's SIMPAY payment platform will support cashless electricity purchases made using featureless mobile handsets with no internet access in communities selected by Ardova to host commercial PyoPower installations. The export of solid biofuels in the form of solid smokeless biochar briquettes as a renewable alternative to coal, will be managed by PyroGenesys ECR7 partner Coal Products Limited (CPL).

This project would build upon the success of previous Energy Catalyst & GCRF funded projects that helped identify & develop commercial applications for our containerised waste to energy technology called "Pyrochemy". To date all our projects have focused on converting agricultural harvest waste used as a Pyrochemy feedstock, to renewable electricity, low carbon heat, biochar & bio-oil for upgrading to a renewable kerosene alternative. PyroGenesys has developed a keen understanding of key stakeholders, prospective customers & their value chains, with whom we now need to engage to facilitate commercialisation of our Pyrochemy technology/products & entry into the Nigerian Energy Market. Several virtual & physical meetings have already been held with a number of prospective Nigerian B2B customers, who have expressed an interest in conducting early stage trials by supplying their waste to be used as a feedstock in our Pyrochemy prototype. Prior to the trials being conducted, customer site visits would be required to conduct Front End Engineering (FEED) studies that would determine how best to integrate a Pyrochemy installation at each location under consideration. Data gathered by the FEED study & a waste characterisation report, would be used by PyroGenesys to determine the commercial feasibility of the proposed installation which in turn would provide justification for conducting a trial using the prospective customers' waste. This approach is highly innovative in the way it combines engineering design & prototype performance data to test the commercial feasibility of a Pyrochemy installation using a specific feedstock in a particular setting. The success of this project would also provide the much requested technical & commercial case studies which our stakeholders would gladly promote, thereby facilitating market acceptance of our technology & products in Nigeria & across much of Sub Saharan Africa.

The Virucidal Breathing Apparatus Filters (VBAF) project will demonstrate proof of concept for a virucidal respirator filter cartridge insert, that will inactivate, "kill" airborne Coronavirus cells. Viral filtration efficiency (VFE) and bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE) measure the effectiveness of filter respirators against viruses and bacteria. Manufacturers state that although their product tests demonstrated \>99.9% results, the results "do not constitute a guarantee" and describe their PPE as "only designed to filter and not to kill viruses." Inactivation of virus cells MUST be incorporated as an essential feature of respirator filter cartridges. Our respirator cartridge inserts will be designed to remain viable for at least 12 hours i.e. during a single shift, to reduce consumables cost along with the risk of cross-contamination from frequent cartridge changes. Improving the safety of respiratory PPE for 1st responders and frontline healthcare workers, is critical to safeguarding the ability of the NHS to provide effective care during the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, as our manufacturing capacity is scaled up, we will seek to incorporate our growing biochar supply chain as a secure source of raw material used for manufacturing virucidal filters in high volume applications. Future product development will see our virucidal filters incorporated in face masks as well as respirators granting them superior safety performance to the incumbent N95 rated products which are "only designed to filter and not to kill viruses."

The project will help deliver SDG 12.5 - reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. Cassava peel and stem waste is an underutilised resource. A containerised technology developed by PyroGenesys called PyroPower, can convert cassava waste into renewable heat and electricity for productive commercial use at a factory or community level. This project will demonstrate that PyroPower process heat and electricity can be integrated with a novel garri frying system and waste biomass dryer, to be developed and fabricated in partnership with the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO). Cassava is a starchy root crop that is harvested year-round, peeled, grated, pressed and then "fried" to produce "garri" a toasted granular staple food for millions of Africans. Hence, improving the informal methods currently used to harvest cassava and produce most garri should significantly reduce firewood use, benefit women's health and reduce deforestation. Agridrive is a Nigerian social enterprise working with farming communities to improve production methods, increase crop yields and better manage agricultural inputs, outputs and resources. Agridrive facilitates the adoption of mechanised farming methods which typically improve planting, harvesting and crop transportation, all of which would help coordinate the efficient operation of PyroPower-integrated garri processing facilities. During the project, Agridrive will engage and encourage adoption of the innovation within 3 cassava growing communities selected for their suitability to host a PyroPower-integrated garri processing demonstrator in Stage 2\. The project also helps to deliver SDG 8.5 - productive employment and decent work for all women and men. Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WEST) is a not-for-profit organisation that will work with all project partners, participating communities and other stakeholders to assist PyroGenesys with developing an effective strategy for recruiting, training and retaining female PyroPower plant operators and technicians. WEST's work will also inform the development of equipment fabrication training courses delivered and accredited by FIIRO. The training will be used to build an equipment and components supply chain across Nigeria.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

The Ethiopian Minigrid Extension and Energy Storage (EMEES) project will further develop an innovative biomass conversion technology (PyroPower) which received Energy Catalyst funding (grant 105268). The project is effectively a Feasibility Study which will assess the viability of setting up an in-country demonstration plant in Ethiopia. The project defines 3 distinct market opportunities as outputs of the technology, which address energy storage opportunities which will benefit urban and rural communities in Ethiopia. The market opportunities are: 1) direct provision and extension of electricity through biomass-powered minigrids and rechargeable lithium battery storage options; 2) provision of an upgraded bio-oil/biodiesel fuel blend which will replace fossil-derived fuels in internal combustion engines; and 3) a smokeless biochar which can be briquetted or pelletised for use in local markets, as a replacement for traditional firewood and charcoal for cleaner cooking options, or exported as a foreign exchange-earning commodity.

The PyroPower Africa consortium will develop to TRL 4, a novel, low-maintenance biomass-powered PyroPower system that is feedstock flexible. In addition, the consortium will test the business case for deployment of a PyroPower pilot plant in Nigeria, using satellite geo-location / proximity data to identify possible locations for a diverse portfolio of future PyroPower installations. PyroPower Africa will also develop the business case for a mobile payment system and develop the protocols needed to sell electricity over rural micro grids in Nigeria using digital mobile transactions. Finally, the development of a detailed business case for a 100 kWe PyroPower plant using rice husk produced by a rice milling technology developed by one of the consortium members, will enable a detailed techno economic appraisal & front-end engineering design study to determine the replicability of PyroPower when integrated with rural food production systems in Sub Saharan Africa.