LONO

Community-scale clean technology

LONO transforms agricultural waste and by-products into compost, animal feed and biofuels, using community-scale, clean technologies they have developed themselves. They work with agro-industrial companies and farmer cooperatives to help them create value out of their waste and by-products. LONO operates in rural communities to reduce transport costs and ensure easy access to the customers who need their solutions the most.

Côte d’Ivoire
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LONO

Circular Strategy

Use waste as resource, Rethink the business model, Design for the future

Sustainable Development Goals

7Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

15Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

"The technologies are now mature enough to transform bio waste into income. Now we just need willing investors and business models that match the context.” -Noël N’guessan

The Opportunity

Côte d’Ivoire is a global producer of cocoa beans, cashew nuts, natural rubber and tropical fruits, the harvest of which produces huge amounts of agricultural waste. This contains calorific value for energy and minerals that could be cycled to replenish degraded soils. Biogas is a by-product from this process, which can be captured for cooking.

Yet this agricultural waste is often burnt, releasing potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The Story

Growing up in Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, Noël N’guessan was fortunate to witness various agricultural models and their impact on rural populations. He saw some recurrent patterns: smallholder farmers lacked access to information and remained victims of systemic poverty. As a chemical engineering student, he decided to specialise in skills that could be deployed to address these challenges: bioprocessing biowaste.

He also saw the potential for technology that is appropriate to the context, accessible and easy to maintain. He returned to Côte d’Ivoire and co-founded LONO with his future wife.

The Solution

LONO has developed community-scale, clean technologies to transform agricultural waste and by-products into compost, biogas, animal feed and biofuels. They work with agro-industrial companies and farmer cooperatives to create value out of their waste and by-products. LONO operates in rural communities to reduce transport costs and ensure easy access to the customers who need their solutions the most. LONO has two different models. First, they produce patented, domestic scale, prefabricated composters and digesters for farmers to process their own biowaste. Their outreach team visits farmers and advises on how to enhance the compost to suit their soil and crops. Second, LONO partners with medium-sized factories to build industrial scale bio waste composting and biodigestion units and thereby avoid waste incineration. Revenue generated from the facility is shared between LONO and their clients. As part of this model, LONO is setting up a compost brand to sell their biofertilisers. LONO has received a number of grants to develop their prefabricated equipment and a larger grant for industrial scale production, which they are now co-financing. They carry out their lab tests and field trials for biogas output and compost quality in a dedicated local laboratory, in partnership with Yamoussoukro Polytechnic.

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