Introduction

As reported by BBC, stubble burning has been a major cause of air pollution in Northern India. Every year farmers from Punjab and Haryana state of India burn the leftover stubble in the farm to clear soil for next crop. This cause huge air pollution in the state as well as the smoke clouds travel as much as 250 km to reach national capital Delhi and add to the toxic haze. Pyropower aims to introduce biochar systems for contributing to stubble management. Pyropower wants to use biochar systems as a solution to waste management.

Approach

Background

What is biochar

Biochar is a carbon rich compound, a product of pyrolysis of biomass. As biomass is pyrolysed, carbon is stored within the biomass, in solid form, thus making biochar a carbon negative solution. The biochar then has multiple applications, one of which is mixing in the soil to improve its yield. Thus biochar is a trusted way of carbon sequestration as carbon remains in the soil for many more years to come.

What is biochar systems

Biochar systems is a combination of different sectors that complement each other to produce biochar. Biochar systems address waste management by using bio-waste as input, address energy sector by producing heat energy, generate carbon credits and produce biochar as a valuable output. Implementing biochar systems usually benefits these 4 sectors.

Understanding the context

The project started with understanding the context in which Pyropower wants to introduce its technology. I conducted interviews with local farmers, other knowledge holders such as news reporters, and professors to identify the root cause and different viewpoints of different stakeholders. By building a context map we visualised the different needs of different stakeholders. I researched government policies and actions they took to solve the problem. I also looked at social problems and inspiring stories from the region.

Managing complexity through value designing

I identified around 10 main stakeholders. Using the value modelling blueprint, I devised the value exchange between these stakeholders. Visualising the value exchange helped to easily capture the whole ecosystem of the proposed business. It also helped to simplify the next stages of business model development.

Multisided business models

To capture/provide suitable value to each stakeholder, multiple business models are needed to work together and achieve the stated results. Using business model canvas I formulated different business models to show different ways of capturing the value. The business plan was then proposed to the government as a possible solution for the stubble-burning problem.

We created a 3 stage roadmap to implement the business plan in the northern state of India. We identified a central semi-rural place in the locality to implement the business model and run the pilot.