19/20/28, 4:10 AM Five things to know about briquettes and sustainable bioenergy in fica - CIFOR Forests News
FORESTS NEWS
EVENT COVERAGE
Five things to know about briquettes and
sustainable bioenergy in Africa
°
Circular bioeconomy solution would benefit people and planet
DEANNA RAMSAY
Ye@deanna.ramsay
MARY NJENGA
wamarynjeng
Charcoal briquette production using tree prunings and twigs in a dryland forest by Ecocharcoal Ltd. Photo collage by
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Beatrice Despioch, EcoCharcoal.
The majority of people in Africa depend on wood for cooking and heating energy due to
its affordability, accessibility and versatility for meeting people’s needs. But while it
offers a low cost means for cooking, heating homes and powering industrial activities, a
sizable proportion of it is obtained unsustainably, leading to deforestation and land
degradation. Moreover, wood is often burned in inefficient appliances, causing emissions
that have negative health and environmental impacts.
Fuel briquettes could help alleviate these challenges.
With wood-dependent populations growing in the region, while access to wood declines,
briquettes offer a practical solution to supplement the use of wood as fuel. They are
produced by compressing biomass residues like charcoal dust, sawdust, other wood
remnants or agricultural byproducts into a solid unit that is used like charcoal or
firewood. If the base materials do not hold together well, a binding substance such as
soil, clay or starch is added. For use in the home, briquettes made from carbonized
biomass are preferred, while non-carbonized briquettes are mostly used for industrial
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article Asticle
Briquettes are more sustainable and more energy-efficient and could reduce the pressure
on forests and lower pollution levels in urban areas, that is, if more people start using
them. For example, in Nairobi’s informal settlement of Kibera, one of Africa’s largest
slums, research found that use of slow burning charcoal dust and soil briquettes reduced
household cooking energy expenditure by 70 percent if families produced their own, and
30 percent if they purchased briquettes from other sources.
Following a recent webinar on briquettes organized by The Charcoal Project, here are
five takeaways on this emerging fuel that could make a major impact.
1) Briquettes offer an opportunity for small enterprises
The production and sale of briquettes offers major income opportunities for
entrepreneurs and participants in the supply chain. There is huge potential in the
cooking and heating fuel market in Africa, and it is not difficult to establish a briquette
production operation. In addition, the competition is fragmented and there are no major,
branded briquette businesses that have cornered the market, said Sylvia Herzog, director
of The Charcoal Project, a nonprofit focused on sustainable biomass solutions.
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The small businesses in Kenya and Uganda that have ventured into the market are
focusing on the various energy needs of chicken hatcheries, rural households, tourist
camps and restaurants, and the lower and middle classes in urban areas.
For example, Kenya’s Eversave Briquettes produces 10 tonnes a month of charcoal
briquettes made from charcoal dust collected from trading sites mixed with gum arabic.
When charcoal dust is in short supply, they make it from carbonized macadamia nut
shells. Selling for 25 to 30 KES (USD 0.25-0.30) per kg, the woman-led enterprise has a 20
to 30 percent profit margin. Nairobi-based company Chardust salvages charcoal dust
from the city’s charcoal traders, producing briquettes of various shapes and sizes for
different purposes, selling roughly 200 tonnes a month to local markets.
Many examples like this exist in sub-Saharan Africa. But there is room for many more
opportunities.
2) Briquettes can help re-purpose waste
Briqu nicely into circular bioeconomy approaches that aim to reduce w nd
spur moré sustainable bioresources and market-based practices, while sustaining rural-
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urban finkages. Article
The Circular Bioeconomy Transformative Partnership Platform of the Center for
International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is working on
the subject in relation to forests and the wood use. A circular bioeconomy approach is
also being implemented in the refugee context in Africa by ICRAF and partner,
supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
and the CGIAR Water, Land and Ecosystems research program (WLE).
In Cameroon, CIFOR supports Kemit Ecology, a start-up enterprise that transforms
household waste such as plantain peels and maize leaves into ecological briquettes,
contributing to urban waste management in the city of Douala.
3) Briquettes offer multiple ecological benefits
The use of briquettes also has the potential to preserve forests. In long-term studies
undertaken at Kenya’s Kasigau Corridor, a conservation dryland landscape of about
200,000 ha, research led by Wildlife Works in collaboration with the National Museums
of Kenya and ICRAF is showing that tree regeneration could occur alongside biodiversity
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protection and charcoal briquette production from tree prunings in the area, since using
prunings eliminates the need to cut down trees. Communities along the corridor are
developing similar briquette and conservation enterprises, including EcoCharcoal, which
works with The Charcoal Project.
The techniques used in the natural regeneration of vegetation and improved
carbonization processes are also being applied in many areas under CIFOR-ICRAF’s
Governing Multifunctional Landscapes project, which works in Kenya, Zambia,
Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo and is funded by the European Union.
Kings Biofuels in Kenya produces over 200 tonnes of sawdust briquettes per month and
has an agreement with the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA). This innovation
could save millions of trees, as firewood is used as heat to dry tea. The non-carbonized
briquettes produced by Kings Biofuels are used in other industries such paint and carton
production.
4) Briquette production can be profitable
Briquette making requires machinery, which is easy to obtain but is costly. But gnce the
businesS*#restablished, there is profit to be made. According to Matthew Owert@#«
Chardust, using pre-carbonized waste helps save, as carbonizing is costly. He noted that
there is great business promise with a focus on quality (by sieving and sorting for
maximum purity) and targeted, niche marketing.
On the flip side, if people with little income are used to collecting free wood, there is
little incentive to pay for briquettes. However, firewood resources are dwindling and
becoming harder to access, and rural households are increasingly starting to pay for fuel.
Ina recent national survey in Kenya, 42 percent of rural households were found to use
charcoal for fuel compared to 34 percent in 2002, indicating that a shift has occurred,
which could signal potential for another shift to briquettes.
5) Public awareness of the advantages of briquettes is vital
A solution to many of the challenges facing briquettes entering the market and
becoming mainstream is in education, for consumers, for those wanting to enter into
business and for institutions or investors looking to finance cleaner energy work.
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Dorothy Auwor Otieno of Kenya’s Nyalore Impact noted that behavior change takes time,
and that health or environmental arguments for replacing wood and charcoal with
briquettes would not convince the communities she works with to switch. Multiple
factors including personal preferences affect people’s choices, so getting briquettes into
household kitchens could take a bit more time.
But growing urbanization leads to growing demand for biomass energy. With more
businesses in the briquette marketplace that are supported with effective value chains,
alongside education and effective communication, this cleaner energy option has the
potential to improve human wellbeing and create more sustainable environments —
where people need it the most.
It is important to note that a complete switch to briquettes in the near future may not be
a feasible goal, as raw materials are limited. However a substantial reduction in the
consumption of firewood, charcoal and kerosene for domestic use and furnace oil in
industries, and the use of electricity and charcoal in keeping chicks warm in chicken
hatcheries, which are a big buyer of charcoal, would go a long way to improving both
human wellbeing and the environment. >
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The webinar hosted by The Charcoal Project was held on March 30, 2021. Antcle
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Keyword(s): briquettes charcoal emissions environment wood wood fuel
Deanna Ramsay
W@deanna_samsay
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Five things to know about briqueties and sustainable bioenergy in Arca - CIFOR Forests News
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