00:04On a hot day, you can't beat a cool slice of watermelon.
00:09Ekosi Market in Lagos is the place to come for fresh fruits,
00:13but it spoils fast and the waste is dumped in this landfill across the road.
00:18There is another solution, one that helps the market traders too.
00:22Our profit has increased based on the reduction on costs.
00:36It's mid-morning in Ekosi and the market is bustling as usual.
00:41Sellers put their fruit on display, mostly pineapples and watermelons.
00:46Three times a week, these collectors go around and collect what becomes valuable fuel
00:51for the market's own biogas power plants.
00:55Plants manager Oladele Fagbemi shows us around.
01:00We are trying to get a fruit waste, the one we are going to use for the shredding in the
01:06biogas plants.
01:08So presently now, this is part of the people that we are getting their waste.
01:13So with this, we are able to generate light for them with the help of the marketers too,
01:19because without them, we won't be able to achieve this.
01:22Thirty tons of fruit peels, vegetable trimmings and unsold produce are left over here every day.
01:30All refuse used to go in one bin, but now the traders know that waste separation matters.
01:37Organic waste can be turned into biogas and therefore energy.
01:41But the process is long and complicated.
01:44We head to the processing hole to see what happens next.
01:49The fruit is smashed to pieces manually.
01:52It looks dangerous, but the workers know how to handle their knives.
01:57Then the fruit gets shredded in this machine.
02:00At least that's the plan.
02:03But there seems to be a technical problem today.
02:07The machines run in too slowly and there is no quick fix.
02:11But that gives us time to explore the market a little bit and see what impact the biogas plant has
02:18had so far.
02:20The plant is a pilot project funded by the Lagos State Government and C40, an international alliance for big cities.
02:30Solar panels make sure that the plants can power up autonomously.
02:35The biogas plant keeps on market lights at night when most deliveries happen, making the area much safer, especially for
02:45women.
02:46Right now, it doesn't provide energy to all the stalls of the markets, but a few of them benefit from
02:52it.
02:53Our profit has increased based on the reduction on costs, like buying gas.
03:00But we don't know because they said we are going to be paying later.
03:04So we don't know, but for now it has reduced costs for us.
03:08Just a few meters down from Zainab's kitchen, someone else benefits from the biogas plant next door.
03:15Hamid runs his phone charging kiosk.
03:17Hundreds of people come here every day to charge phones, batteries and other small devices for 300 naira or 20
03:25cents.
03:26It's a lifeline of the market and Hamid doesn't miss the time before the plant launched operations.
03:33This biogas is beneficial for the market in general because there was no light here for about 4 or 5
03:38years.
03:39The phones are charged with the power provided by the plant.
03:43And if gas from the plant is running low, Hamid has a backup cylinder and a gas generator.
03:49But he doesn't need it today.
03:53Back in the processing hall, in the meantime, the issue with the shredder has been fixed.
03:58Something was off with the motor.
04:01Now the chopped fruit finally gets shredded.
04:06Weighed and put into a big blender for one last round of mixing before it enters the digester.
04:13When we pump it into the digester, we need to evacuate a particular liter.
04:19If we are going on 500 liters from the digester, taking it out, that same 500 we are loading back.
04:26And this is what's left over from the last batch.
04:29We need to offload a little from here so that we can get the digester, which is the organic fertilizer
04:36that is very useful.
04:41The farmers come here to come and pick it.
04:44You understand?
04:45Although we have a storage tank of 10,000 liters that we're only storing there.
04:49For now, they are picking it for free.
04:52The digester is basically the heart of the plant.
04:55Here is where the magic happens.
04:58This repurposed shipping container is where the fruit turns into gas.
05:04This valve is connected with the valve that enters the holding tank.
05:08So after then, once we are loading the fruits waste inside the digester,
05:12so we have a motor for each one of them.
05:15What the motor do is that you do a constant mixing.
05:19During this process, gases build up in the digester.
05:23Catching them is the next step.
05:25This is where we have the final stage.
05:28This array of filters clears impurities and leaves behind pure methane gas,
05:35which is stored in bags like this that can hold 10 cubic meters of gas.
05:42Usually, two gas generators hooked up to the bags harness the energy, but they are having issues today.
05:49So this small one has to do the job.
05:53Not everything is working smoothly today at the ecosystem biogas plant.
05:58But under ideal conditions, it produces up to 30 kilowatt hours of energy per day.
06:04So it's not that we are producing energy and giving it pro bono.
06:09If there is an investor coming, investors, and you look at the maps, where the stable is coming,
06:18what, how do we need to sell the energy that is coming.
06:21The next plan is dependent on the fund.
06:25If successful, Lagos state government wants to roll out similar projects across the city's markets.
06:32Here, it's already creating jobs, providing lighting at night, and cutting emissions from food waste.
06:37Scaled up, it could bring reliable energy to people living with an unstable power grid.
06:46So I'm back in Berlin now, and I already missed the pineapples from Icosi Market.
06:51But something in my kitchen suddenly looked a little bit more interesting.
06:55I'm speaking about this little bin over here, because this is where I collect my organic waste.
07:02So in Germany, organic waste is collected in bins like this at large.
07:07And guess what? This is going to be turned into biogas and compost, just like in Lagos.
07:13Exactly. And what struck me are the possibilities for scaling.
07:17Lagos produces so much waste, and around half of it is organic.
07:21So this is not just about cleaning up. It's also about energy.
07:25I've been to the Icosi Market many times for fresh fruits.
07:29But this time, I saw the market quite differently.
07:32It is still a pilot project.
07:34Yes, not everything worked perfectly when we filmed.
07:37Yes, but the potential is huge.
07:40And for someone like me who likes watermelons, seeing how the biogas plant works
07:44gives me a different perspective about waste management in a city like Lagos.
07:48What's the goal of our projectiles?
07:50Thank you very much.
07:5223XIV media we have worked vegetables on the list.
07:52Only several summers who come to break the samples then or have reduced myself .
07:52Maybe more than eight
07:52ones but I'm not baking too much further.
07:53There isn't a thing for us.
07:53You
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