Northumbria University have received funding to build Pakistan’s first full-scale demonstration plant which will convert agricultural waste into clean energy.
The project, called Safer Plus, will ensure that women who usually work for free in rural South Punjab can earn an income.
Currently, they spend three to six hours a day collecting fuelwood on family farms. But now, more than 120 households across a 25-30km radius will receive a formal income from material that farmers currently pay to dispose of.
At least 60 per cent of training places will be reserved for women at the demonstration hub at the University of Kamalia.
Dr Yasir Nawab, Vice Chancellor of the University of Kamalia, said: “This project demonstrates that universities in rural Pakistan can be more than places of learning, they can be the engines of clean energy, skilled employment and economic transformation for the communities they serve.”
Every winter, farmers across Punjab burn millions of tonnes of cotton stalks and sugarcane waste in their fields because there is no other use for it.
This practice contributes to air pollution levels five to seven times above World Health Organisation limits and is a major driver of Pakistan’s seasonal smog.
Safer Plus will turn cotton stalks and sugarcane waste into engineered bio-coal pellets through a heating process known as torrefaction. The pellets can potentially replace imported coal in brick kilns and textile mill boilers at 40 to 50% lower cost.
The process also captures surplus heat, which will be piped to local textile dyeing workshops, as well as generating electricity from its own gases to power off-grid households and produce wood vinegar to use as a natural pesticide.
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