An East African social business in Uganda, has come up with a household fuel to help Ugandans cut carbon emissions.The solid briquettes are made from bio degradable waste like banana peelings. They burn more efficiently and emit less carbon compared to charcoal.
At a processing factory in Uganda, workers crush tonnes of organic waste, then mix the compressed waste material with charcoal dust and later fuse with a binder as part of the process of making briquettes -a type of green charcoal.The move is part of efforts to get low income earners to use sustainable energy to meet their fuel demands. The briquettes also release fewer carbon emissions.
“Briquettes can burn between one hour and four hours, which traditional charcoal does not provide this time of burning. So that means, if I can burn a batch of briquettes between one hour and four hours, I am saving on the energy I should have used, charcoal does not burn beyond two hours.” Hilington Zziwa, Project Manager at Green biotech energy
Founded in 2011, Green Biotech Energy is also keen to help conserve Uganda’s forests. Uganda loses at least 70,000 hectares of forest cover annually to the lucrative charcoal trade.
