Evaluating fuel briquette technologies and their implications on greenhouse gases and livelihoods in Kenya. PhD Thesis in Management of Agroecosystems and Environment

Charcoal is theprincipal cooking fuel in Kenya which provides energy to 82% of urban and 34% of rural households. Poor households are opting to use unhealthy sources of fuel such as tyres, old shoes and plastics especially those in urban and peri-urban areas while many families are shifting from traditional meals that require long cooking times and are compromising dietary diversity and nutrition as a result. Faced with poverty and unemployment, communities are turning tofuel briquette which is made by compressing biomass material into a solid unit . Fuel briquette production methods in Nairobi and surroundings and their implications on the quality of the product were studied through focus group discussions with eight groups and one private company. The fuel briquette producing community SHG‘s in Nairobi comprised all those identified and locatedusing an existing database on self-help groups involved in waste management in Nairobi. One group SHG that produced sawdust fuel briquettes was identified in Naro Moro through PactKe an NGO working on Natural Resource Management in Laikipia county . Implications of fuel briquettes on the community livelihoods were also investigated. The results obtained were applied in designing experimentsto assess different fuel briquettes producing techniques using, (i) different binders namely soil, paper, cowdung and gum Arabica, (ii) pressing machines, (iii) charcoal dust from Acacia mearnsii, Eucalyptus spp and Acacia xanthophloea, (iv) sawdusts from Grevillia robusta, Pinus patula and Cupressus lusitanica and (v) carbonized sawdusts from the three tree species above in (iv).combustion characteristics which included calorific value, ash content and volatile matter of the fuel briquettes were conducted through Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and wet chemistry.

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