Distributed Clean Energy from Waste

A Social Impact Entrepreneur’s journey starts by standing with the poor, listening to voices unheard, and recognizing potential where others see despair.

Mateen is CEO and Co-founder at Grassroots Energy. Mateen has 18+ years of experience with energy startups and automotive majors. Mateen has experience with life cycle of developing concept to scaling up businesses. Lack of reliable energy in the surrounding rural areas triggered the idea of solving this global problem. Mateen has an MBA from Babson College, US.

Grassroots Energy is addressing four global challenges: 1. Need for innovative mitigating solutions for agriculture, which accounts for 21% of global emissions 2. Scalable clean energy solutions 3. Create local jobs 4. Sustainable agri inputs to retain topsoil and nutrients. 

Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) is an ultra-clean, ultra-low-carbon natural gas solution for efficient management and conversion of organic wastes into clean, high quality fuel and organic fertilizers. Grassroots Energy has developed a low-cost energy efficient technology that can purify and compress biogas in a cost-effective manner. Grassroots Energy’s approach is decentralized, modular CO2 scrubbing system operating at atmospheric pressure and is 4X energy efficient. In addition, the innovative adsorption-based storage can reduce storage pressure by 3X. This will address diverse market segments currently using fossil fuels to switch to low-cost RNG without any lowering of performance This approach leads to reduced investments and operational challenges.

Grassroots Energy addresses the energy access issue for 3 billion people. The vast majority of these people are engaged in dairy or agriculture. These farming activities have significant under-utilized agri or farm waste output, that otherwise go discarded or under-utilized, can be processed into biogas, which can be converted to electricity or Renewable Natural Gas to solve the energy access. Grassroots Energy is bringing a game-changing energy solutions to those communities most in need. The inclusive intervention solves problems of energy, agriculture and environment while creating holistic and sustainable social impact on the communities.

Existing technologies/solutions are expensive and large-scale in nature. Grassroots Energy’s distributed installations generate reliable electricity and clean fuel (Renewable Natural Gas) solutions for agri processing, cooking and last mile mobility consumed by the local communities.

The circular economy model addresses 3 major problems: access to clean energy, soil remediation with organic fertilizers and mitigating carbon emissions.

The dozen innovations by Grassroots Energy include cost-effective Plug-flow digesters, reliability and small-scale RNG enrichment to make the reliable decentralized energy solutions.

This model can be replicated across communities. The advantages over solar are: reliable generation round the day, no battery storage, overlaps with agriculture hence comprehensive.

Grassroots Energy is dedicated to developing viable clean energy solutions that convert farm or agri waste into electrical energy or Renewable Natural Gas using appropriate technologies. The electricity generated as a result is piped back to stakeholder communities via a mini grid for use in agricultural processing. The RNG is used for cooking, electricity generation or last mile connectivity. The residue of the Biogas operations is enriched with nutrients into organic fertilizer.

Grassroots Energy has developed a system for processing waste through small-scale “modules” that enrich biogas to RNG. These modules involve a biogas digester and enrichment system, which makes the processed gas suitable for consumer use. The company has also developed technology for storing the gas in cylinders rather than piping the gas into a grid, something that doesn’t exist in many remote communities. We are one of very few organizations worldwide working in the RNG space focused on a distributed model. The technology exists elsewhere but at large-scale. We are bringing down the scale so that it can be deployed in wider, smaller communities.

The approach addresses multiple UN SDGs, including those related to energy access (SDG7), climate action (SDG13), land protection (SDG15).

Jamalpur, a town in Bihar has seen an increase in availability of electric power connections from the grid last two years. However, limited access to and high cost of 3 phase electric connections continues to be challenge for micro-entrepreneurs in rural areas This in turn limits the possibilities of income levels and living standards in remote rural areas. As things go, in locations like Jamalpur, most of the households tend cattle to meet own needs of dairy products and meat as well as to generate cash income by selling in the market. This makes cattle waste a part of daily life. While a part of the cattle waste is gainfully used as cooking fuel the remaining largely gets piled up to decompose in the open exposing communities to environmental and health risks.

Grassroots Energy is dedicated to developing viable clean energy solutions that convert cattle waste into electrical energy using appropriate technologies. The electricity generated as a result is piped back to stakeholder communities via a mini grid for use in daily household and agricultural chores. The feedstock residue of the operations is processed into organic fertilizer.

Proven model of clean energy which is award winning and gaining support of leading partners. The multi-dimensional stakeholder engagement leveraging technology is designed for social and environmental impact across emerging economies. As our approach solves multiple social and environmental issues the diverse stakeholders benefit from our model. Our multiple revenue approach is gaining support from leading partners to join hands for scale-up. Grassroots Energy has team from Harvard, Babson, IIT and a PhD, the capable team is capable of buidling scalable business. The evidence-based model is ripe for new global partners to benefit from our approach.

“We can’t operate the machines as electricity is unreliable, it is affecting my farms”.

“I don’t know if I will able to make enough money from this crop to feed my family”.

“The widespread Cattle and agricultural waste affects the health, sanitation of the communities, we want someone to solve this.”

Lack of energy hampers economic growth, it limits people of opportunities for education, enable income generating activities, access to entertainment etc. I have seen significant people in remote locations are engaged in Agriculture. My experience working in emerging economies is that people with limited means do have aspirations for better life. In many a time, they need the means and resources to achieve those goals. Combining these experiences have developed my passion and shaped my journey to address the energy access segment.  

To understand the issue better, I spent time on the ground to understand people’s concerns, challenges and limitations, I got deeper insights to shape and develop products and services. I learnt to listen to people patiently, which helped me to develop energy solutions. Today, we provide electricity, clean fuel and fertilizers to address the energy access issue while improving incomes and people’s lives in the communities.

Meeting the aspirations of the resource starved people is fulfilling. The common misconception is 'lack of ability of people to pay for great product/service'. I have experienced that people are willing to pay if the product/service can enhance their productivity leading to increase in incomes or saves costs. A reliable and sustainable electricity connection for processing agri waste leads to increase in farmer’s incomes. Even if the connection is expensive over the Utility, farmers pay for the timely availability and reliability from the local operator. This for me was a great insight. I was amazed to see the adoption among the price sensitive market. But, to demonstrate reliability and offer clean energy sustainably requires lots of planning and good execution.

I would advise to work on developing solutions with a long-term perspective and build great products. This would involve patience, commitment and perseverance. Understand the pain points by asking why the issues exist and how to solve them. It is important to have a standardized model to replicate across locations. Develop the shared values of a conscious organization to do good attitude to solve the issue of poverty.

I had in the past built managed complex project engaging from ideation to scaling up of the business model. Given the scale and impact I have created, has provided me with self-confidence, personal and professional connections to leverage as I progress in the journey. I believe in the role of  leveraging technology as enabler of economic progress. My deep experiences in the Indian market combined with a global mindset, long-term approach to problem-solving, the emphasis on sustainability and concern for people have been core of my belief system. 

I have experiences in multiple diverse settings in India and Bangladesh in South Asia, which form a significant people without access to energy. 

Given my comfort with highly skilled people and ability to deal with grassroots staff and community stakeholders, i have a lending ear to understand the challenges to develop a customizable approach to complex problems.

I have an entrepreneurial mindset demonstrated in diverse business and social settings. I have an MBA from Babson College, where my entrepreneurial skills were further sharpened. 

Building a world class social impact firm requires great leaders and change makers. Attracting talent in social entreprises is hard. To make an impact, I realized, we need an outstanding team who is motivated towards the cause and passion to work in a challenging area of energy access. I scouted and motivated the people to attract the talent and retain them. For this, I had to relentlessly scout for great talent and nurture the team from different walks of life. Further, I had to regularly motivate the team to align towards the shared goals. This requires developing their desired skills and mentor them on a regular basis to achieve the timely milestones. 

At the moment, we are in the process of building a next phase of leaders for new functions and a second level of the leadership team. One of my active roles now is to engage with a diverse set of people and understand their interests and see if there is a fit with our work. If I find that the person has the right mindset and skills, I will initiate the dialogue if we can work together.

In an instance, when we were about to begin our project deployment, a group of people came to our site location and raised objections. They said Biogas is hazardous, environmentally harmful and they did not want us in the community. This was a shocker as we already had a series of discussions with stakeholders, but these were a new set of people with specific hidden objectives. 

I decided to approach the problem holistically.  I and my team had to break-down our approach with:

a) Overview of the project with simple, easy to understand words and graphical interpretation

b) New detailed communication with clear advantages to the community

c) I got written and video references from other communities where we have operated before 

e) I requested a local administration and a subject matter expert to come and provide insights.

Post all these efforts, we realized the members of the group wanted us to work with them so that they be part of the ecosystem. I created a potential way of they support us with the delivery of our solutions in the community. This win-win and inclusive model ensured we progressed to implement in the desired timeframe.

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Grassroots Energy has developed a modular and economical biogas enrichment and storage solution. The solution of 240m3/day or modules thereof is disruptive and opens new opportunities. RNG from biogas consisting of two parts:

1. Enrichment of biogas by removal of impurities like CO2, moisture and H2S

2. Storage in cylinders to make it transportable.

The system uses a patent pending rotating contact disc (RCD) mass-exchange, a superior alternative due to better efficacy and reduced pressure drop. In addition, the proprietary solvent results in 3X solubility for CO2 over water.

The system can operate at atmospheric pressure, 10X better than the market standard. The system intelligently uses the higher solubility of CO2 in water compared to methane, but eliminates the pressurization step used in most water-based upgradation systems.

The patented system consists of multiple surface discs which rotate continuously powered by flowing water to create an enormous absorbing surface area for the dissolution process, allowing the entire CO2 to be dissolved while methane passes out.

The same disc-based system is exposed to the CO2 rich water to air and release the dissolved CO2 and regenerates the water for reuse in the system. This zero-power regeneration and avoidance of compression greatly reduces the power requirement of the upgradation process allowing higher efficiency.

The solution stores the gas in specially made cylinders filled with absorbent material. These cylinders are designed with “patent pending” special thermodynamic characteristics and have been fabricated to support the adsorption process effective for Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) storage.

Innovation and validation by International bodies is the first step towards theory of change.

https://www.seforall.org/stories-of-success/grassroots-energy-turns-waste-into-progress

http://energyaccessbooster.com/

https://www.iusstf.org/assets/sitesfile/image/publications/pdf/pdf_906702604.pdf (page 6-8)

Electricity:

The hybrid model of Solar and RNG is a sustainable solution to solve the challenges of intermittency and increases the scope of providing tailored services to consumers. Grassroots Energy wants to tap to create a positive change in the remote locations. The harnessing of RNG is a game changer for the bioenergy sector as it has methane content of over 90 per cent and is a substitute for natural gas. The RNG has a similar calorific value of diesel.

Cooking:

User experience: The calorific value of BioCNG is at par with LPG, that is 11,200 kcal/kg. The user does not feel any difference in the end use.

Economic Incentive: Savings of 38-50% which is a significant savings.

Accessibility: A clean fuel solution in the vicinity, will help them adopt faster and avoid the hassles.

Less hassle: Commercial LPG is not easily available in remote locations, forcing the end users to spend time and effort managing domestic LPG using their individual accounts.

Ripple benefits of agri value chain at input and output:

Organic Fertilizers enriched from the operations - user feedback:

·  An affordable, quality solution is a great value to small and marginal farmers who expect the crop to produce sustained yields.

·  The organic fertilizer solution re-generates the farm increasing the essence of the agri farm, soil. If the product is made available in desired locations and quantity, this can reduce the dependency on harmful usage of chemical fertilizers resulting in volatile crop outputs by 40% from the first crop.

·  One solution for all crops and can be used across the crop cycle

·  Can be used for seed germination to increase the resistance of the crops.

· Using the products in combination of solid and liquid provides the macro and micronutrients needed in the soil.

· Visible changes in the crop in colour, quantity and quality right from the first crop.

· Multiple ways of usage including sowing, spraying and drip irrigation

Each of the installation serves 1100 families per annum across the value chain. In total we are currently serving 5500 families.

Beneficiaries:

·       10-15 micro enterprises per installation using clean fuel in the community.

·       890+ farmers per installation benefitting from the usage of organic fertilizers.

·       80-100 farmers per installation will be supported with services against the collection of feedstocks.

Jobs creation:

·       7 staff (3 full time and 4 part-time) per installation as part of the operations. 22 micro entrepreneurs per installation in the nearby villages for distribution of organic fertilizers.

38-50% reduction for micro enterprise in expenses for clean fuel usage

20-30% increase in crop yields using organic fertilizers for farmers

12-15% increase in income for lead farmer / micro entrepreneur for distribution of organic fertilizers 20-22% increase in income for farmer for supplying the feedstock

Grassroots Energy is strongly positioned to demonstrate on the environmental, social, and financial metrics. The working model potentially can create positive social impact by providing rural villagers with greater energy access, improving quality of life, and increasing economic opportunity for small businesses.

Additionally, the waste materials, clean fuel, and fertilizer can create new revenue sources that drive money into local economies, supporting small farmers while bridging a business model that creates improved financial returns when commercially scaled.

By 2025, Grassroots Energy aims to set up 350 installations, thus supporting 385000 families or 1.5 million people (family of 4 people). 

Grassroots Energy’s circular economy approach results in social, environmental and economic benefits to the communities around the installations leading to sustained energy solutions. The following would be social benefits from the implementation of 250 Installations:

1.    Grassroots Energy hires and train people, creating 2100 local jobs towards feedstock sourcing, RNG, logistics and composting. Each plant is operated by 4 people.

2.    Grassroots Energy creates additional income opportunities for farmers against the supply of feedstock. This translates to saving of $600K of incremental income per annum for these farmers.

3.    Each installation serves 1200 bottles of RNG per month, saving about 20-50% over traditional fuels and LPG.

4.    The fuel residue, organic fertilizer, helps the small-and-marginal farmers to increase the farm yields and reduce usage of fossil fuel-based expenses. About 300K million small and marginal farmers will be benefited from the nutrient rich fertilizers. Average farmer income can be increased by 20%.

In addition, by 2025, approximately 960,000MT CO2e per annum will be offset from our operations. This includes feedstock usage of agri waste, replacement of fossil fuel and replacement of chemical fertilizers.

Capital: Long term patient capital is the required for these infrastructure based projects. 

Automation: A series of process automations will ensure the operations are automated for mitigating manual intervention and remote access for preventive action.

Adsorbed Natural Gas cylinders:

The moisture content of Biomethane generated from the scrubbing system does not conform to pipeline specifications. The off-the-shelf desiccant based drying technology can be used to modified to meet the parameters. Grassroots Energy has modified an existing heatless desiccator design and is working with a vendor to achieve the required dryness with minimal increase in power consumption. The ANG solution is still under development.

The design is robust and based on published technical knowledge, however, the following steps needs to be completed before commercialization. 1. Sufficient prototype trials to ensure reliable performance of gas adsorption and desorption (gas storage into and supply from the cylinder) 2. Using industry standard cylinder manufacturing process to create the special adsorption cylinder instead of fabricating them in a workshop to ensure high throughput and low cost.

We are looking at the following support: Grassroots Energy is keen to explore partnerships with organizations who would like to use our solutions in their ecosystem to reduce carbon footprint by using clean fuel. These organizations can either replace fossil fuel or start using clean fuel in their business processes. Grassroots Energy would like to engage and discuss with experts to improve our product performance, quality to achieve develop robust solution. Grassroots Energy would like to engage with Investors to raise commercial capital to support the growth plans.

In addition, we would like to leverage the existing B2B partners (TOTAL and TATA Power) to deepen the reach and accelerate the scale.

Grassroots Energy's energy efficient and modular RNG solution can solve diverse challenges to address the environmental, clean fuel and social issues.

Cooking: 

We are working with TOTAL. We are part of Cooking cohort selected in a global competition. 

Grassroots Energy is part of their ecosystem after technical and business due diligence.

Electricity (remote power in mini grids):

We are working with Tata Power, a leading utility in India. They would like to use the RNG along with Solar to be 100% renewable, an alternative for diesel.

Grassroots Energy has the advantage with the distributed generation to generate close the mini grid sites.

Fertilizers:

Grassroots Energy partnered with 50 odd farmer cooperatives where in the enriched organic fertilizers are adding value to farmers, replacing the chemical fertilizers currently used.

The three targeted segments (end users) for the clean fuel applications are: a) Cooking b) electricity generation b) last mile mobility. These 3 segments can save  20-40% over fossil fuels.

1.     Replacement for traditional, environmentally harmful options and alternatives to LPG for cooking. 

2.     Generate electricity using BioCNG. The compressed gas can be used as fuel for mobility at the last mile. Bio-CNG is cheaper than diesel, allowing economical operations while being cleaner and sustainable.

3.     Re-engineer off-the-shelf mechanized farm machines and tools to operate on Bio-CNG.

In addition, the beneficiaries from each installation include:

Beneficiaries:

·       10-15 micro enterprises per installation using clean fuel in the community.

·       890+ farmers per installation benefitting from the usage of organic fertilizers.

·       80-100 farmers per installation will be supported with services against the collection of feedstocks.

Jobs creation:

·       7 staff (3 full time and 4 part-time) per installation as part of the operations. 22 micro entrepreneurs per installation in the nearby villages for distribution of organic fertilizers.

Approximately 96,000MT CO2e per annum will be offset from our operations. This includes feedstock usage of agri waste, replacement of fossil fuel and replacement of chemical fertilizers.

38-50% reduction for micro enterprise in expenses for clean fuel usage

20-30% increase in crop yields using organic fertilizers for farmers

12-15% increase in income for lead farmer / micro entrepreneur for distribution of organic fertilizers 

20-22% increase in income for farmer for supplying the feedstock

The commercial viability of our model has been demonstrated. The core part of the installation, our proprietary technology is made by us and the rest of the components are sourced from our vendor network. We believe with 25 installations, we will be profitable by 2025. 

Economic sustainability:

One of the core aspects of the project is to demonstrate the technology and economic viability of the operations. The product outcomes from the operations are RNG and organic fertilizers will be sold in the community and adjoining areas. The project aims to be economically sustainable in six years from the installation. Given the multiple revenue streams, over the long term the economic viability will ensure smooth and sustained operations from the sale of the produce to recover costs.

The quality of products, lack of alternatives, the savings over alternatives make a strong and compelling reasons for the community to come back and source from the project location.

Social sustainability:

The sourcing of feedstock will be done from local sources. These are contracts which be renewed periodically for a multi - year term. This ensures the local farmers are benefiting for a long term.

Grassroots Energy has so far received grants from DOEN Foundation and PACEsetter Fund for demonstration of technology. Grassroots Energy now has the technology ready to commercialize in 2020. We are now ready to attract commercial capital from private investors. Grassroots Energy is in the process of discussing with investors for raising $500K USD as a convertible note, which will be converted to equity (Series A of $4M) by 2021/22. The amount will be used for product roll out, working capital. The existing partnerships will help in the sales, which will further boost the cash flows. In addition to the Series A equity of $4M (bank financing of $4M to make debt and equity of 1:1) will boost the capital for wider deployment in multiple countries for scaling up the operations. Grassroots Energy aims to be profitable by 2022.

Grassroots Energy intend to raise $2.5M over the next two years for our scale-up. This would be a combination of $1.25M debt and rest $1.25M in equity. The capital would be used for scaling up operations with additional installations. 

Our budget includes product development, installation and operating expenses. We aim to spend about $240K during 2020.

1. Need connections with investors who have a focus on energy and social impact synergies.
2. Mentorship on two areas:

a) Technical areas to accelerate our product rollout and variations 

b) Operations and automation 

3. Advisors to streamline our growth. Facilitate the journey with product, people and capital alignment.

We would like to partner with organizations with focus on agricultural inputs. This partnership can help us enrich our organic fertilizers.

Organizations with focus remote monitoring of assets to accelerate our deployment of distributed asset tracking.

Investors with a focus on social impact capital and focus on energy.

Organizations which are keen to deploy clean energy. For example: Data centers who need clean energy. Beyond Solar, biogas operations makes more sense with round the clock operations.