The Safer Plus project, which was awarded nearly £1.25m ($1.7m) through Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst programme, will develop and operate Pakistan’s first full-scale demonstration facility converting agricultural residue into clean, commercially viable fuel.
The plant, to be located on the campus of the University of Kamalia, was announced last week as part of efforts to boost energy self-sufficiency and address longstanding environmental and social challenges in the region.
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The heart of the project is a process called torrefaction, an industrial technique that heats crop waste to create engineered bio-coal pellets.
These pellets can be used directly in the boilers of textile mills and brick kilns, enabling potential savings of 40% to 50% compared to imported coal and without requiring modifications to existing equipment.
According to Northumbria University, the demonstration centre at the University of Kamalia is expected to process around 5,000t of crop waste per year and produce up to 4,000t of bio-coal.
It is also expected to remain active on campus for at least a decade, serving as a continued resource for both the local community and industrial partners.
Dr Jibran Khaliq, who is leading the project from Northumbria University together with Dr Shahid Rasul, said: “Pakistan spends over two and a half billion dollars every year importing coal to power its industries, while millions of tonnes of crop residue are burned in fields because there is no market for it.
“What makes this project different is that we are not proposing another laboratory study; we have spent six years developing and validating the knowledge, and now we are building a live commercial facility with three textile mills already committed to using the fuel. This is the step that turns research findings into an investable, replicable business that Pakistan can own and scale.”
The Safer Plus consortium is building on earlier work in waste-to-energy conversion, having previously trialled the use of banana stem waste for energy production. Findings from those efforts revealed cotton and sugarcane residues had even greater energy potential and commercial relevance for Pakistan’s textile-dominated industrial landscape.
If the demonstration plant proves its effectiveness, the consortium plans to replicate the Safer Plus model across 30 rural hubs in Punjab, a move they estimate could displace more than 100,000 tonnes of imported coal each year.
Three major textile producers have signed letters of commitment to test the Safer Plus bio-coal as boiler fuel, with the intention of purchasing the product commercially if trials are successful.
As a further innovation, the process will capture surplus heat for nearby textile dyeing workshops, generate power for off-grid households using gases from the plant, and produce wood vinegar to be sold as an organic pesticide to local farmers.
A notable feature of Safer Plus is its focus on women’s economic participation. The supply of agricultural waste will be managed by a women-led biomass cooperative.
More than 120 households in the vicinity will supply crop residues to the plant; at least 60% of all training opportunities are reserved for women, who will receive independent payments via mobile wallets.
In southern Punjab, many women currently spend much of their day collecting fuelwood or doing unpaid farm work, but the cooperative model is intended to deliver a formal, regular income.
“Our patent-pending reactor converts agricultural waste into four commercially viable products from a single process which are coal-grade fuel, electricity, industrial heat and organic pesticide, all without consuming any fossil fuel after start-up,” Eco Research chief executive Dr Muhammad Saghir said.
