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Speaker: Shapoval

Pavlo SHAPOVAL

Growing energy crops is a modern trend in agriculture that is attracting more and more supporters every year.

Pavlo Shapoval, the forum's speaker and head of the Department of Physical, Analytical and General Chemistry at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, spoke about how to start your own business by growing the incredibly beneficial for the environment and undemanding in care giant plant Miscanthus.

This crop can be used for burning in solid fuel boilers, producing pellets, sold on the market in the form of chips as a raw material for biofuel, processed into cellulose, paper or biocomposites. You do not need a large capital investment to start growing Miscanthus, but the payback on this business is impressive!

"This plant can grow in one place for more than 20 years, is resistant to diseases and pests, takes root well on polluted and neglected soils, and requires relatively low material and monetary costs per unit of area and mass," says Mr Pavlo.

Miscanthus giantis can grow on terricones formed by the extraction of minerals from mines, and also plays an important role in their cleaning and restoration. This plant is often used in phytoremediation, a process that uses plant filtration to cleanse the soil of pollutants. For the Chervonohrad district, the issue of ecology is no less important than the issue of economic development, so entrepreneurs who start growing this crop will not only enrich the region, but also preserve it for future generations.

Pavlo Shapoval's presentation is an almost finished business plan for those interested in growing energy crops. Watch this video to learn everything you need to know to start developing in this area!

Implemented by the NGO "Tech StartUp School" as part of the project "Makership, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Chervonohrad coal micro-region".

The event is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH as part of the project "Just Transition of Coal Regions and Green Recovery of Ukraine's Energy Sector".