Those using ordinary printing paper as a binder produced 25 –27 kilojoules of energy per gram (KJ/g), while those made using soil as a binder produced 25 KJ/g. As such, households are now able to choose from a wider dietary range,” says Njenga.Īs part of the research, Njenga herself made charcoal briquettes using various binding agents, and compared their energy values. This is nine times cheaper than cooking the same meal with charcoal (KSh 26 or US$0.3) and 15 times cheaper than cooking with kerosene (KSh 45 or US$0.6). “With charcoal briquettes it costs just 3 Kenya Shillings (US$0.04) to cook a traditional meal of maize and beans for a standard household of 5 people. Njenga says briquetting is helping resolve the cooking-energy poverty faced by the poorest households.Īlong with co-researchers from the University of Nairobi, University of Tsukuba in Japan the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and partner NGOs, Njenga found that the poorest urban households often selected foodstuffs they could cook in the shortest time regardless of their nutritional value, in order to save on energy. It is also easing the energy demand from fossil fuels and grid electricity.” “By saving trees that would otherwise be cut down for charcoal or firewood production, briquetting is protecting the country’s forest, savanna and dryland habitats, and contributing towards the country’s reaching its 10% forest cover target by 2030. “It also relieves them of the pain of carrying firewood on their backs for several kilometres daily.Ĭonverting charcoal dust into usable fuel contributes towards Kenya’s national development aspirations in many important ways, says Mary Njenga, a doctoral fellow with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and lead author of the new study. “Instead of spending hours collecting firewood, the women in these villages buy my briquettes because it allows them to spend more time on farming,” says Milka. ‘Engineer’ village abuts the Aberdare forest, one of Kenya’s most important water catchment areas and game reserves. Milka, a 30-year-old mother of two and a member of the self-help group ‘Kahawa Soweto Youth in Action’, makes her living by selling charcoal briquettes made by her group in Nairobi to residents of a village called ‘Engineer’ about 80 km west of Nairobi, and in Limuru and Kirinyaga. The briquette trade is spreading to rural areas of the country, too. Women and youth make up the majority of those employed in this informal industry.īy 2010 some of the most successful community groups in Kibera, Kahawa Soweto, and similar low-income neighbourhoods in Nairobi were making up to $2000 monthly from the sale of charcoal briquettes, and women were slashing their cooking-fuel costs to a tenth or less, says a recently published study in the International Journal of Renewable Energy Development.
The resultant ‘dough’ is shaped by hand, or moulded in wooden or metal presses into fist-sized units, which are then air-dried. Today, their work is helping overcome some of Kenya’s capital city’s most intractable headaches-poverty, unemployment, and poor waste management-and contributing to the country’s sustainable development aspirations, too.Ĭharcoal briquettes are made by mixing charcoal dust with water and a binding agent such as soil, paper or starch. Over ten years ago when the poorest residents of Nairobi started making briquettes out of charcoal dust, they were trying to solve an immediate household problem of unaffordable fuel.