Bio-clean is a Palestinian sustainable project that is using waste of potato starch and cow manure to produce biogas and bio-fertilizers. By adding potato waste and yeast in its bio-reactor, Bio-clean can produce even more energy than what cow manure can get. This can be made through the yeast fermentation process that converts sugar into methanol. Furthermore, the waste that can be extracted from the bio-reactor after energy production can be used as high-quality bio-fertilizer since it provides microelements that plants need such as phosphorus or potassium.

In addition to that and through the production of methane gas, Bio-clean is ultimately aiming at supporting marginalized villages of the West Bank that do not have a specific source of energy for cooking, heating or lighting. It will create economic development and jobs in fields such as manufacturing and installation. It also enables to collect and use materials that are usually disposed of in a way that is harmful to both human health and the environment.

Bio-clean is one of the projects selected by the Palestine Polytechnic University of Hebron to benefit from green business development trainings within the framework of the SwitchMed Green Entrepreneurship Programme. The programme is carried out by the Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC) and the Switchers Support National Partnership of Palestine, led by the Birzeit University.

This promising project was designed by Maymana Mwas and Shatha Al-ward Sawalha, two 21 year-old women who are studying respectively applied biology and renewable energy engineering at the Palestine Polytechnic University of Hebron. They say:

“We wanted to help our homeland to get rid of high quantities of both cow manure and potato waste in a useful way. Since we are studying two different subjects that complement each other, we can make the idea more successful and produce as much energy as possible.”

Before they were selected, the project was only at an ideation stage. The trainings helped Maymana Mwas and Shatha Al-ward Sawalha develop their business model, elaborate a strategy to implement their project and facilitate the requested procedures to reach the stakeholders and experts they need. They expect to be able to launch their company and produce high quantities of good-quality biogas and bio-fertilizers. They also envisage to have their own laboratory in order to make research on other materials and microorganisms that generate clean energy.

Some of the calls for application for green entrepreneurs in Palestine, and in other countries, are still open, check them here if you have a project to develop to: https://www.theswitchers.org/call-for-applications