Bringing Renewable Energy to Local Farmers.
Eco-innovative farming solutions are vital to ensuring the global reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to agriculture. Biodôme du Maroc, a small, fast-growing Moroccan company, provides local farmers with a technology that gives them access to renewable energy for on-farm use. Founded in 2013 by Dr. Fatima Zahra Beraich, Biodôme du Maroc is the first Moroccan company to specialize in the recovery of organic waste through natural treatment and environmentally friendly processes. This is to enable farmers in rural areas to produce biogas and fertilizer.
For the environment, biogas helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from abandoned organic waste and minimizes the risk of polluting waterways. This “clean” method of energy production also reduces reliance on wood as a fuel source. Biodôme du Maroc offers a range of small-scale agricultural anaerobic digesters. These digesters use a simple and innovative system to produce biogas and recover organic matter. Inside underground concrete enclosures, farmers can deposit different kinds of organic waste, such as household, plant and animal waste, which is fermented in a biological accelerator. In this process, gas is produced through methanization or anaerobic bio-digestion, where bacteria naturally break down organic matter within weeks.
By providing a technology that produces gas from organic waste, Biodôme du Maroc gives local farmers access to renewable energy for agricultural production.
Dr. Beraich currently holds six patents covering innovations that improve the efficiency and performance of Biodômeʼs bio-digesters. “The process of securing a patent means that our technology is evaluated by experts and allows us to understand just how different our inventions are from other competing technologies. This allows us to protect the inventive characteristics of our outputs,” explains Dr. Beraich. “With these patents in hand, we hope to be able to license our more recent patented innovations.” The support of the Moroccan Association for Research and Development (R&D Maroc) – part of the network of Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISCs) in Morocco – has played a critical role in the success of Biodôme du Maroc. “I learned about the TISC network at an outreach event at the University organized by the Moroccan Industrial and Commercial Property Office,” Dr. Beraich explains. R&D Maroc helped Dr. Beraich secure seed funding and also ensured she had the help she needed to draft her patent applications, and license and access the technology she required to create and commercialize her bio-digesters. Biodôme is currently marketing its patent-protected bio-digesters in Morocco and across Africa.
Dr. Fatima Zahra Beraich, CEO of Biodôme du Maroc, is helping local farmers to reduce energy consumption by implementing biogas technology.