In India, well over a million people are estimated to die every year due to air pollution, making it one of India’s most acute environmental problems. In particular, pollution from agricultural residue burning can contribute to anywhere up to half the pollutants in the air at specific times of the year. Farmers have short windows of time between their two crops cycles to remove residues from the previous harvest, and often resort to burning it. But what if this so-called stubble could be quickly processed instead into a fuel or other commodity? That is the challenge taken up by Vidyut Mohan and the team at Takachar. In this episode, we speak to Vidyut about their affordable device for thermally treating the stubble on smallholder farms. He talks about moving to Europe and how a chance meeting with a fellow researcher in the United States eventually led to the manufacturing plant they have now established in Bengaluru. We get into what they have learned from on-the-ground projects in Delhi and Tamil Nadu, as well as how an unexpected development in the global climate discussion – mushrooming appetite for low-costs carbon removal solutions – has recently transformed the fundraising outlook for Takachar.

Further reading:

1. Takchar: https://www.takachar.com/
2. The Great Smog of India, Siddharth Singh 2018:https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42422584-the-great-smog-of-india
3. Covid-19 slows progress toward universal energy access, IEA 2022:https://www.iea.org/news/covid-19-slows-progress-toward-universal-energy-access
4. Net Zero by 2050, IEA 2021: https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050
5. ETP Clean Energy Technology Guide, IEA 2021: https://www.iea.org/articles/etp-clean-energy-technology-guide
6. India Energy Outlook 2021: https://www.iea.org/reports/india-energy-outlook-2021

This episode is hosted by Siddharth Singh and Simon Bennett. It was produced by Rakesh Kamal (Suno India). Additional production help was provided by Rob Stone and Allison Leacu.