Accelerate Morocco’s Biogas Sector:
A Higher Education Industry Partnership
Accelerate Morocco’s Biogas Sector:
A Higher Education Industry Partnership
Why biogas in Morocco?
With its diverse agricultural sector and growing livestock industry, Morocco has ample organic waste resources that can be harnessed to produce biogas. This renewable energy source not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also contributes to the country’s energy security and rural development.
However, the adoption of biogas technology in Morocco also faces several challenges, including a lack of adequate infrastructure, policy coordination, technical expertise, funding, and limited awareness. Overcoming these hurdles and promoting the large-scale use of biogas as a clean energy alternative will play a crucial role in Morocco’s transition to a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy landscape.
We transfer know-how between academia & industry
Project objectives
Several measures will be undertaken to ensure the success of the AMBER project, including:
Become a part of our network
The three universities collaborate on various scientific inquiries tailored to local conditions, facilitated by close cooperation with Moroccan and German industry partners. Become part of our network and get in touch with us. We look forward to your enquiry.
Participating universities
Institute of new Energy Systems (InES)
is part of Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI). One of the core pillars of THI’s internationalization strategy is the cooperation with African countries which is strongly driven by InES: For more than 15 years, InES has successfully coordinated cooperation projects with a focus on local business partners as well as universities in Africa. With a total of seven projects implemented or ongoing to date, InES collaborated with various local and international industry partners so far – all of them in the sphere of applied RE technologies. Some of the projects include:
Al Akhawayn University (AUI)
Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI) is a higher education institution that has embraced the concept of sustainable development to contribute specifically to the prosperity of its community and Morocco in general. Sustainable development is part of the university’s five-year strategic plan, and is driven by AUI working on many national and international projects on sustainable water management, forestry, sustainable resources and energy management, biodiesel production, or the use of biomass for heating. As part of the AMBER project, AUI will extend its expertise on bio-energies, strengthening its national leadership in terms of biogas production and environmental protection.
École Nationale d’Agriculture (ENA)
École Nationale d’Agriculture de Meknès (ENA) is a public higher education institution and a leading academic research school under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forest. ENA has carried out activities in collaboration with various universities and national and international institutes to develop a scientific research program to contribute to the strategy development for resilience and environmental sustainability of smallholder farmers in rural communities for adapting to climate change. One of the main agroecology principles is circular farming, which can be addressed from different perspectives that match the AMBER project.
Industry partners
Morocco
Coopérative Al Wifac is a dairy cooperative consisting of 12 members. It manages a milk collecting centre that collects milk from other farmers before sending it to the processing unit. Since the distance between some of the farmers is short, the aim is that the farmers operate a joint medium-sized biogas plant. AMBER aims at developing concrete concepts for the farmers to further utilize the residues in the form of energy and fertilizer through the research component and the practical parts of the courses with the students.
Biodôme SARL, the first producer of biogas in Morocco, has steadily expanded its product and service portfolio since 2013, ranging from waste management to the conversion of organic waste into a source of clean energy. The young company has already been awarded several national prizes. Biodôme has numerous close collaborations and partnerships with various actors in the field of sustainability at national and international levels and gained recognition beyond Morocco’s borders through international reporting.
More information
www.biodomemaroc.com
Ben Aziz Agri is a young Moroccan company dedicated to agricultural business management. At the same time, it is a fertilizer trader and thus has close contact with agronomic actors. The founder of the company, Mr. Aziz Ben Chekh, has already publicly expressed interest in expanding his product portfolio to include biogas technologies.
Germany
Awite Bioenergie GmbH is a specialist in gas analysis systems, control, and measurement. In addition to developing, manufacturing, installing, and commissioning, Awite is also active in service and maintenance. Awite and InES have previously worked together within the framework of the project Innovation Centre Biogas 4.0 and focused on the development of new concepts for the biogas industry in Germany together with seven other industry partners.
More information
www.awite.de
The Snow Leopard Projects GmbH (SLP) designs, plans, builds and manages biogas plants in Germany and abroad and is active in energy consulting. SLP has already built more than 60 biogas plants in 13 countries on four continents and has great expertise in international collaboration. SLP has among others implemented projects that were funded by develoPPP, a BMZ funding program.
More information
www.snow-leopard-projects.com