EcoNomad
EcoNomad Solutions is a young agri-tech company co-founded by Dr Ilan Adler, an eco-technology expert, and Alex Demenko, MBA alumnus from London Business School, and based at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, UK. The name is a mix of ‘Ecology’ and the ‘Nomadic’, off-grid quality of the products they are developing.
Ilan Adler has a PhD in Environmental Engineering, is an Associate Professor at University College London and an Enterprise Fellow at the Royal Academy of Engineering. As an eco-technology expert, Ilan has worked with anaerobic digestion technology and renewable energy, as well as wastewater management, for over 15 years. Realising that the current methods for converting farm waste into renewable fuel and natural fertilizer were only available for larger-scale farming operations, EcoNomad has launched, after years of research, a ‘waste to energy’ platform called BioNomadTM for the smaller farm.
EcoNomad has been successful in funding their developments through grants, including the SHAKE Climate Change programme award last year. The company have now completed the development of the BioNomadTM and it’s now available for purchase!
BioNomadTM allows farm waste to be transformed into biogas for cooking, heating or electricity as well as a high-grade organic fertiliser that can be sold or spread on crops, reducing the need for chemicals.
The key benefits of this waste treatment solution are its simplicity, small footprint (no planning permit required in most cases) and affordability, making it particularly adapted to smallholding farms and rural communities both in the UK and worldwide. The system is particularly suited to cold and temperate climates and can be operated fully off grid. By EcoNomad’s own estimates, a farmer with 50 cows – or equivalent – could save around £6k per annum by using the system. The solution is expected to deliver a pay back within 3 to 5 years.
EcoNomad is also developing a Passive Solar Pump and Pasteurizer (PSPP), a patented, off-grid technology. It may be used alongside BioNomadTM to upscale organic fertiliser from the system, or on its own for a whole range of applications such as irrigation, pasteurisation, energy production and storage.
With 60% of the world’s methane emissions produced by human activities, and the bulk of it coming from agriculture, waste disposal and fossil fuel production (and responsible for at least 25% of today’s global warming)* it is time to offer solutions to smaller farms eager to reduce their environmental footprint. And it seems that EcoNomad is doing just that!
If you would like to know more about this fascinating company, please contact John Allies at john@strategicallies.co.uk