A short, printable summary of the Lhacienda Terra for funders, partners and anyone deciding whether to back it. Use your browser’s print function to save it as a PDF.
At a glance
- Project — Lhacienda Terra: pyrolysis of cashew nut shell waste
- Location — Bondoukou, Gontougo region, Côte d’Ivoire
- Status — Launch phase. No results to report yet.
- Led by — Lhacienda Esperanza Foundation on the ground, funded through Lhacienda Foundation
- Foundation — Non-profit incorporated in Delaware, USA, in 2026. IRS tax-exempt determination not yet granted.
- Directors — Franck Arnaud Gbedieu Zago · Marta María Núñez Muñoz
The problem
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer of raw cashew nuts, and the Gontougo region around Bondoukou sits at the centre of that trade. Processing the nut means cracking the shell — and the shell, which makes up the greater part of the raw nut by weight, has nowhere to go. Most is burned in the open or heaped beside the plants, releasing dense smoke and caustic oil close to the people who work there.
The response
Pyrolysis heats biomass in the near-absence of oxygen. The material breaks down instead of burning, into a stable carbon-rich solid — biochar — and combustible gases. Applied to cashew shells this changes three things at once: cleaner air around the plants, soil that holds water and nutrients through the dry season, and carbon locked into a stable form rather than released within days.
What we are raising for
- Equipment — the pyrolysis unit that replaces open burning beside the processing plants.
- Training — the local team who will operate and repair it. Equipment nobody in Bondoukou can fix stops working the month after installation.
- First cycles — the production runs that let us measure real yields under local conditions, and publish them.
Governance and status
Two directors, both currently serving without compensation from the foundation. No financial year completed, therefore no annual accounts; from the close of our first full year we will publish annual figures separating programme costs from running costs. Full detail on Transparency & governance.
Please note before giving: Lhacienda Esperanza Foundation has obtained its EIN but has not yet received tax-exempt determination from the United States Internal Revenue Service. We cannot issue tax receipts, and donations made today are not tax-deductible.
What would help most right now
- Practical pyrolysis experience. If you have run a reactor, specified one, or watched one fail, we want that conversation before we buy anything.
- Partners in the Gontougo region — agronomy, health and water, or child protection.
- Cashew processing plants around Bondoukou. Your shell waste is our input, and the conversation costs you nothing.
- Institutional funding. A conversation rather than a portal, and an honest answer when we are not the right fit.
Contact
Franck Arnaud Gbedieu Zago, Director · Marta María Núñez Muñoz, Director
contact@lhaciendafoundation.org · +1 302 216 7622
Lhacienda Foundation, 8 The Green STE B, Dover, DE 19901, United States
Lhacienda Esperanza Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Delaware, United States. Donations are not tax-deductible at this time — see Transparency & governance. · Privacy policy · Contact
