Award winning Kubeko turns waste into income

Developed and patented by Ivorian chemical engineer Noël N’guessan and his team, the Kubeko system can assist smallholder farmers and their cooperatives to generate more income from the by-products of their harvests, without any additional labour.

The biodigester transforms green waste, liquid and solid, into cooking gas and liquid compost. Approximately five kilograms of daily solid waste provides two hours’ worth of cooking gas, and 50 litres of liquid compost.

The composter is fed and aerated daily for 15 days, and produces 150kg of compost from 400kg of biowaste each month. The equipment’s aeration can be configured to run on an energy grid or on solar power.

“Biowaste represents two-to-five times the quantity of crops or produce sold, amounting to 30 million tonnes of waste disposed of annually in Côte d’Ivoire,” N’guessan said in a statement. “By repurposing this waste, Kubeko can help Ivorians generate extra income, dramatically improving the lives of thousands of farmers and their families.”