Sierra Leonean innovator Andrew Sahr Norma is turning food waste into clean cooking gas through his company, EcoIgnite. Operating in Freetown, Makeni, and Waterloo, Norma has developed a biogas digester that converts food waste into safe and efficient cooking gas for households and restaurants.
Norma believes his biogas digester addresses waste pollution, reduces reliance on firewood and charcoal, and contributes to sustainable development goals. Sierra Leone produces approximately 802,000 tonnes of food waste annually, much of which ends up in rubbish dumps. The decomposition of this waste releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Freetown alone generates over 742 tonnes of municipal waste each day, predominantly organic.
Norma’s initiative began in 2022 when he and his team founded EcoIgnite to mitigate the large amounts of waste on the streets of Freetown. He highlighted that a staggering 75% of Sierra Leone’s more than 15,000 restaurants rely on firewood and charcoal for cooking, which not only slows the cooking process but also poses health risks due to indoor air pollution.
In 2024, EcoIgnite partnered with Chinese technology providers to design portable biogas digesters that effectively convert food waste into cooking gas. These digesters come in varying capacities: between 8,000 to 10,000 litres for households and larger systems of up to 40,000 litres for restaurants.
Every year, over a billion tonnes of food waste are generated globally, contributing to climate change as it decomposes in landfills. Since launching its biogas solution, EcoIgnite has successfully transformed over 120 tonnes of this waste into clean energy and replaced over 5.2 tonnes of firewood, thereby preventing more than 52 tonnes of carbon emissions.
EcoIgnite also supports various United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by providing a clean energy source and helping to improve public health by reducing reliance on polluting fuels.
Following the launch of his biogas digester, more than 50,000 litres of capacity have already been installed in several locations, including the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary and the University of Makeni canteen. Norma aspires to expand this technology across Sierra Leone, aiming to provide clean, reliable cooking energy and address waste management and energy access challenges on the continent.
He emphasised that food waste should not be seen as a problem but as a valuable resource to be utilised.
