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The burning of agricultural waste has catastrophic consequences for human health and the environment, causing air pollution that in some areas has reduced life expectancy by a decade.
This plays out every year in the fields surrounding New Delhi. Smoke from man-made infernos fills the air, with serious consequences for the health of locals. One of their number is Vidyut Mohan. His social enterprise, Takachar, is putting out the fire.
Takachar has developed a cheap, small-scale, portable technology that attaches to tractors in remote farms. The machine converts crop residues into sellable bio-products like fuel and fertilizer.
Takachar’s technology reduces smoke emissions by up to 98% which will help improve the air quality that currently reduces the affected population’s life expectancy by up to 5 years. If scaled, it could cut a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year: a win for India’s farmers will be a win in the fight against climate change.
The Earthshot Prize prizemoney of £1 million has allowed Vidyut and the team to speed up their product prototyping process and double the size of their team. They have also seen new customer enquiries triple, and a major uplift in social media footprint, and were awarded $1M by the Musk Foundation’s XPrize for carbon removal.
Vidyut had the chance to share more on his work and journey with Earthshot Prize Council Member Cate Blanchett on her “Climate of Change” podcast and has taken private meetings with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Mike Bloomberg.
Since winning The Earthshot Prize in 2021, Takachar have accelerated their efforts to tackle agricultural waste and emissions.
The Prize money has helped the Takachar team speed up their prototyping process and hire consultants to help with product development. Investment in R&D has increased, too, which allowed Takachar to begin commercialising its Takavator Mini unit, capable of processing up to 100 kilograms of biomass input per hour. The focus has been on making the prototype unit robust enough to be manufactured and sold. It is now deployed in multiple locations around the world.
Since winning The Earthshot Prize, Takachar has been awarded $1m (£0.8m) by the Musk Foundations XPRIZE for carbon removal, and its two cofounders have been named as Breakthrough Energy Fellows. The Takavator Mini Unit is now deployed in Southern India, on the west coast of the US and in British Columbia, Canada. Meanwhile, it is developing new applications of its products for wood-based forestry residues and rice straws.
In 2022 Takachar processed 350 tonnes of biomass in the form of crop and forest residues, avoiding 700 tonnes of CO2e emissions from the atmosphere. In 2023 it processed an additional 400 tonnes of biomass and avoided 800 more tonnes of CO2e emissions.
Global Alliance member Deloitte has worked closely with the team at Takachar to support with pitches and advise on the company’s long-term scale-up plan, while Herbert Smith Freehills supported with the setup of the company’s structure and carbon removal credit contracting. Bloomberg Philanthropies, meanwhile, provided support to scale their technology in a pilot programme across several villages and The Aga Khan Foundation are exploring a new pilot in Uttar Pradesh in India.
Download our 2024 Impact Report and dive into the details of what our global community has achieved to date.
