Country of Residence

Nigeria

Age

20

Project title

KOA_Energy

Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence

KOA Energy converts discarded cocoa pod husks into clean electricity and thermal energy using modular biomass gasification, powering local processing, drying, and cold storage while generating youth employment in Nigerian farming communities.

Website URL(s) or social media handles.

Project Category

My project is a brand new / emerging idea

Project Stage

Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)

Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?

I have always loved looking at how things work, whether in business, football strategy, or local communities. The spark for KOA Energy came during a visit to a cocoa-farming community. Walking around, I saw endless heaps of empty cocoa pod husks dumped along farm paths, rotting in the open air and breeding pests. That same evening, the entire village went pitch black. Farmers were sitting next to piles of fresh produce they could not preserve, stressing over the skyrocketing price of diesel just to run basic drying equipment and small generators. That was my "aha" moment: the very solution to their energy crisis was rotting right under their feet. Cocoa pods make up nearly three quarters of the entire fruit’s weight, yet they are treated as useless garbage. I realized that if we stopped viewing cocoa husks as trash and instead treated them as an unharvested fuel source, we could turn an environmental hazard into electricity. By using biomass gasification to convert those husks into clean, decentralized power, we could dry crops, refrigerate perishables, and cut energy costs right where the food is grown. Seeing that broken loop made me realize this wasn't just a technical possibility, but an opportunity to build a business that completely changes rural life.

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?

Smallholder cocoa farmers in Nigeria face a twin crisis which are severe lack of reliable power and crippling post-harvest waste. Rural agricultural communities are either entirely cut off from the national grid or suffer chronic blackouts. Because modern drying, cooling, and processing require dependable power, farmers rely heavily on expensive petrol and diesel generators. When fuel costs surge or weather prevents open-air sun drying, entire harvests rot, slashing farm incomes and trapping families in poverty. At the exact same time, cocoa processing creates massive agricultural waste. For every bag of cocoa beans harvested, tons of empty pod husks are left behind. These heaps decay in open fields, emitting methane, attracting plant diseases like black pod rot, and polluting local water runoff. This matters deeply to me because rural communities work the hardest yet capture the least value from their labor. Many young people leave these farming communities because they see no modern future there. Watching farmers lose their hard-earned crops while literally standing on mounds of untapped bio-energy showed me an urgent need for an affordable, localized circular solution that protects farm income, creates clean power, and restores the local environment.

Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.

KOA Energy solves this by deploying a decentralized, modular biomass gasification system tailored directly for cocoa farming clusters. Rather than simply burning waste, our system creates a closed-loop circular economy through five integrated steps. First, we organize structured collection routes with local farmers to gather cocoa pod husks, providing them with a clean way to clear their land while earning extra value. Second, the husks are sorted, crushed, and dried using recovered system heat to prepare them as uniform feedstock. Third, the prepared biomass enters a modular gasifier that thermally converts the husks under controlled conditions into clean syngas. After passing through a dedicated scrubbing and filtration stage to remove tar and impurities, the gas fuels an internal combustion generator to produce clean electricity. Fourth, we don’t let energy go to waste, both the generated electricity and recovered thermal heat are channeled straight back into the agricultural cluster. The power runs community level bean dryers, cold storage for perishables, and processing equipment. Farmers no longer have to depend on erratic weather or pricey diesel to dry beans properly before sale. Finally, the solid residue left behind, high quality biochar and mineral rich ash is evaluated and returned to farmers as an organic soil amendment, enriching degraded farmlands and capturing carbon. By keeping every piece of the model modular, units can be placed close to farming clusters, eliminating costly grid infrastructure and turning agricultural waste into reliable rural industry.

Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?

KOA Energy is currently in the idea and early design stage. As a young founder, my early work has centered on field observations, studying cocoa post-harvest challenges, and consulting technical literature to ensure biomass gasification can work reliably on cocoa pod feedstock. When launched, our impact will transform the local ecosystem across three clear areas: Energy Access & Crop Savings: A single modular pilot unit will process several tons of pod husks each season, providing continuous, low-cost power and drying heat to over 50 smallholder farming families. This will cut crop drying times in half and reduce post-harvest spoilage by up to 30%, keeping more profit in farmers' pockets. Youth Employment: We will create direct jobs for at least 8 to 12 local youths in residue collection, feedstock preparation, and plant operations, proving that clean technology can create sustainable local careers. Environmental Health: The system will divert metric tons of rotting husks from open fields, reducing open dumping, cutting disease spread on farms, and preventing methane emissions. By proving the pilot in one community, we establish a repeatable blueprint that can be scaled across cocoa-producing regions nationwide.

Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?

Most clean energy projects targeting rural Nigeria deploy standalone solar home systems or propose large, expensive centralized bio-plants. While solar home systems provide basic lighting, they rarely supply the heavy thermal and mechanical power required for agricultural drying, grinding, and commercial cold storage. Meanwhile, massive centralized biomass projects are capital-intensive and struggle with the high logistics cost of transporting bulky agricultural waste over long distances. KOA Energy innovates by focusing on decentralized modularity and circular co-location: Direct Energy-Agriculture Integration: Instead of just selling power to homes, we tie our system directly into the agricultural value chain. Recovered heat is immediately applied to drying cocoa beans, while generated electricity drives agro-processing right at the farm gate. Feedstock Proximity: By keeping the gasification units modular and placed inside cocoa clusters, we eliminate transport bottlenecks. The fuel is produced on-site, used on-site, and recycled back to the soil on-site. True Circularity: Other initiatives treat agricultural waste as an afterthought or mere fuel. We treat it as an economic loop, diverting disease causing husks, producing clean power and heat, and returning the mineral dense biochar back to local soil to improve soil fertility and sequester carbon. Context-Driven Engineering: The unit is designed for simplicity, ease of local repair, and low operating costs, allowing local youths to be trained to run and maintain it without waiting for outside technical crews.

How many people are on your team?

1

Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?

I am currently working on this solo as the founder, handling project design, research, and community outreach. Because I cannot build this alone, I lead by listening and partnering. I share ownership with local cocoa farmers, treating them as co-creators rather than just suppliers. As the project develops, I plan to bring on two local youths to manage husk collection and equipment maintenance, giving them full responsibility over daily operations.

What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.

Because KOA Energy is in the idea stage, my immediate priority as a solo founder is to build strong community partnerships and test the concept. Over the next three months, I will, 1) Visit Local Cocoa Clusters: I will Spend time in farming settlements to talk directly with farmers, assess where pod heaps are dumped, and calculate how much husk waste is available weekly. 2) Find Technical Mentors: I will Connect with local mechanics, welders, and engineering teachers who can help me design a safe, low-cost gasifier blueprint using local materials. 3) Test the Feedstock I will Collect husk samples to test simple sun-drying and crushing methods to see how easily they can be prepared for fuel. Over the next year, I will Recruit my First Team Members, Bring on two passionate local school graduates to help organize collection routes and train alongside me. I will Build a Working Model by Constructing a small, bench scale prototype to prove that cocoa husks can generate stable syngas to run a small generator and supply drying heat. I will run a Village Demo, Set up a pilot demonstration with a small group of farmers to show them how their crop waste can dry their beans faster and generate light.

How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.

I connect with people by focusing on real, everyday problems rather than complicated technical terms, I do this by, 1) Talking to Farmers: When I speak to cocoa farmers, I do not talk about global emissions; I talk about their farm expenses. I show them how turning rotting pod husks into heat can dry their beans during rainy weeks and save them money on expensive generator fuel. When they see it helps their pockets, they want to be part of it. 2) Mobilizing Other Young People: I spend a lot of time on local football fields and in community youth spaces. I use that energy to talk to other school graduates about green innovation. I show them that we do not have to wait for outside help, we can use our own hands to solve local blackouts and build a business that creates jobs. 3) Hands-on Demonstrations: People believe what they can see. In the coming months, I plan to run small, live tests showing how dry cocoa husk pellets burn cleanly and release heat. School Visits: I want to visit local secondary schools to share my journey as a young innovator. I want to show art and science students alike that any young person with curiosity can spot waste in their community and turn it into a creative solution.