BiofuelCircle helps manufacturers, industries reduce carbon footprint

BiofuelCircle has created a digital platform to help large industries and manufacturers replace fossil fuels with briquettes and pellets made from agricultural waste.

BiofuelCircle, a Pune-based startup operates an app that is an online marketplace for an unusual kind of product – briquettes, i.e. blocks of compressed agricultural residue, such as mustard husk, groundnut shells, soybean, wood husk, sawdust and chips of wood.

Agro-residues are the waste matter of farming; it is what is left after the grain or fruit of a crop is harvested. Only when seen in the light of India’s aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070 —which means reducing the carbon intensity of the economy by around 45 per cent by 2030 and fulfilling 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by that year — does BiofuelCircle’s business plan look progressive, innovative and essential.

The briquettes and pellets that are made from agricultural residue or waste are used as fuel to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in rural areas have been making briquettes and pellets at a local level for several decades. BiofuelCircle’s digital platform connects these local sellers with large companies and industries that manufacture paint, tyres, colas, consumer products, pharmaceuticals and textiles, among others, in a seamless manner.

At present, the platform has close to 850 sellers and more than 150 consumers. Last year, when NTPC sponsored a Startup India contest, BiofuelCircle emerged as the winner for creating a digital biomass market.