Can a Tanzanian venture spark a briquette revolution in Africa?

Everyone knows that telling people to voluntarily use less fossil fuels because CO2 emissions are harming the planet is a very weak motivator.

But tell them they can save money, even make money, if they switch to a sustainable alternative fuels, THEN they start paying attention.

In some ways, that’s what a Tanzanian non-profit is asking the country’s producers and consumers of wood and charcoal fuels to do: take biomass waste, convert it to briquettes using a simple mechanical process, and, voila, you’ve got yourself a cleaner burning, more environmentally friendly fuel for personal consumption or sale!

ARTI – Tanzania is the non-profit behind the green jobs/clean fuel idea. In addition to its briquette-making initiative, ARTI-TZ, whose mission is to promote sustainability and entrepreneurship through the use of “appropriate rural technologies,”  also promotes on its website a line of clean cookstoves, biogas digesters, and photo-voltaic charging devices.

As we’ve reported here before, Tanzania is a country that urgently needs a crash program for improved cookstoves, better charcoal-making kilns, and sustainable, alternative solid biomass fuels.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the country’s forests are disappearing at a whopping rate of 4,200 square kilometers (1,620 sq. miles) annually. That’s about four times the size of New York City or  half the size of Virunga National Park in the DRC,

To find out more about ARTI’s briquette program, we submitted a list of questions to Dennis Tessier, Programs Director for ARTI- Tanzania.  Here’s what he had to say about their own charcoal project. 

The Business of Briquette-making

The Charcoal Project: So, Dennis, how did the briquette-making program come to be?

Dennis Tessier: Initially we envisioned the project with an environmental focus to reduce deforestation.  After some time we realized that it was very difficult to ask people engaged in the charcoal industry to stop cutting trees when it was their only source of income.  As one villager once told us, “you cannot ask someone to think about the future when they can’t even see past their next meal.” We also quickly realized that urban consumers used charcoal because of its low cost and availability and would only switch if the alternative was cheaper and equally available.  Keeping this in mind we developed our project with a focus on market development for charcoal briquettes with the following objectives:

• To reduce deforestation by providing a sustainable alternative to tree-based charcoal
• To generate “green jobs” by providing training and equipments to existing charcoal producers and rural households engaged in agriculture
• To facilitate and support “green “enterprise through the establishment of charcoal briquette producers and sellers
• To produce a cheaper alternative to wood charcoal
• To sensitize institutions, industry, and urban consumers on the benefits and quality of charcoal briquettes.

DT: Our project is a synergy of non-profit and commercial activities.  Appropriate Rural Technology Institute Tanzania (ARTI-TZ) works on the non-profit side and focuses on training, education, and sensitization.  ARTI-TZ also provides training on the fabrication of charcoal kilns, pryolyzing of dry biomass, briquetting, and basic business and marketing skills, as well as assists with market linkages.

ARTI-TZ also works to sensitize consumers used to wood-based charcoal to the benefits of charcoal briquettes.  Joint Environmental Techniques (JET), a commercial enterprise, provides a buy-back guarantee for char powder and briquettes from producers in rural areas.  JET processes the briquettes, packages them, and sells them in urban centers. The hope is to create thousands of entrepreneurs who will start their own briquetting businesses.

The Market

TCP: Who are you targeting and how many people have benefited from the program so far?
DT: Since 2006 ARTI-TZ has trained over 1000 people from Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi on charcoal briquetting. Building on this success we will start the Waste to Wealth Project with support from the World Bank’s Biomass Energy Initiative for Africa (BEIA) in 2010. The project will train and equip 1800 Tanzanians in 60 villages from the 4 districts surrounding Dar es Salaam.  The project will target existing charcoal producers and facilitate their charcoal transition from forests to fields.  The project will also provide market linkages to ensure existing transporters and other stakeholders are included in the transition.

TCP: What can you tell us about your startup costs and your launch?

DT: To date the project has been financed through fees charged for training and through the personal funds of the founders of ARTI-TZ.  The World Bank will provide 136,000 USD for the Waste to Wealth Project.  ARTI-TZ will provide 60,000 USD in co-financing.  On the commercial side, JET has received some funding from private investors.  Further investment is required to generate the necessary market development of charcoal briquettes.  For an individual wanting to start an SME in his or her community they would require an investment of around 500 USD to buy all the equipments and receive the necessary training.  The cost is based on the training being conducted in Dar es Salaam.

TCP: How competitive are briquettes on the streets of Dar es Salaam?

DT: Joint Environmental Techniques (JET) currently sells a kilo of briquettes in Dar es Salaam at 500 Tanzanian shillings, or about 30 US cents. The char powder is usually purchased from rural producers at 100 shillings per kilo, 320 shillings is used for transportation, production, packaging and marketing and the balance is administration and profit.  We hope to reduce these costs as the production volume and efficiencies increase.

The Product

TCP: What do you use to make the briquettes?

DT: Basically any dry biomass can be used to make charcoal briquettes.  The most common materials are maize stalks, leaves, grass, small branches, coconut husks, saw dust and wood shavings.

TCP: Tell us about the briquetting process. What type of technology do you use? Who owns the briquetting presses?

DT: For JETs operation smaller extruders that have a capacity of 500kg per day are used.  This type of extruder produces a sausage like briquette.  We prefer it because the char powder and binder blend sufficiently to make a briquette that does not break easily and has a good density.  The extruders are owned by JET.  If other people wish to purchase an extruder they can purchase either a manual one that producers approximately 20-40kg per day and costs around 90$ or a larger extruder that ranges from 2300 USD and up depending on the capacity.

TCP: What is the calorific value of briquettes? How does it compare to wood and/or charcoal?
DT: The quality of the briquette depends on the type of biomass used to produce it.  Grass, leaves, rice husks, etc produce a lesser quality briquette, maize stalks, saw dust, coconut husks, small branches produce a better quality briquette.  When asked to compare to wood based charcoal, the answer is it depends on what type of tree is used.  Soft wood trees produce lower quality charcoal than hard wood trees, but generally speaking, the briquettes made from better quality biomass are as good as wood charcoal in terms cooking heat.

TCP: On the website you say the agricultural residue left over from the harvest is “trash.” Agronomists would say there is a good reason for leaving that waste in the fields. That biomass turns over to become much needed nutrients for the next cropping season. Is your business model depriving the land of much needed nutrients? How do you know that the removal of the biomass from the field is not having unintended, negative consequences?  Is this something you are monitoring?

DT: When we say “agricultural waste” we speak of the material that is burned off in the fields after the harvest season.  This is a common practice for pest control and preparing the field for the next season.  While, on the surface, it would seem that pyrolyzing the waste for briquettes is harmful, the truth is actually the opposite.  We have learned from our trainings that producing char powder encourages farmers to control the burning they conduct in their fields rather than setting a large fire.  This protects the micro-organisms and allows some material to remain as mulch.  Furthermore, the activity encourages farmers to better use their land through expanding the area cultivated and gives them an additional income upon which they can reinvest in their land.

The Social Marketing

TCP: What’s your plan to get people to switch from charcoal to briquettes?

DT: The most effective way to sensitize people about charcoal briquettes is to get them to try it and see it working. We do this through live demonstrations at public events, exhibitions, conferences and other gatherings of people.  We support this through media, such as radio programs, and newspaper articles and through trainings.  Government Institutions, such as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT), the Rural Energy Agency (REA) and the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) have provided valuable support in this sensitization process through access to key venues and provision of transport of equipments and supporting trainings.

We are currently working on a comprehensive social marketing strategy.  Initially our focus will be on sensitizing schools and other institutions using charcoal, which represent 11% of all charcoal consumption in Tanzania.  We will combine this with live demonstrations and trainings.

TCP: What are the main benefits you hear from end users? Any idea of what percentage returns to using charcoal after trying briquettes? (I.e.: what’s your retention rate?)

DT: Our business is still young and we do not really have any statistics on it yet.  The Waste to Wealth Project will be our first opportunity to collect such data. What I can say is that people are very interested in switching to charcoal briquettes because they welcome a lower-costing product and they know the destruction wood charcoal is causing.  That said they are reluctant to switch because of fear of the product not performing to their satisfaction and the regular availability of the product.  This is a challenge and call for greater sensitization and ensuring quality briquettes are produced for the market.

TCP: What have you learned in the process of developing and perfecting the briquettes?
DT: The principle complaints when the briquettes are made from grass or leaves is the ash content and the strength of the briquette.  When the briquettes are made from a better quality biomass the complaint is that they burn too hot.  We try to avoid using lesser quality inputs to reduce ash content and improve performance.  The burning too hot is a result of the user putting too much briquettes in their stoves.  Briquettes are denser and pack better than wood charcoal and therefore less volume is required to cook the same amount.

TCP: What types of public policy or legislation has been enacted to favor the adoption of briquettes by urban populations?

DT: The Government of Tanzania, through various institutions and with key stakeholders, including ARTI-TZ, have been working on streamlining its policy on charcoal with the aim of creating market incentives for alternatives and increasing the cost of wood charcoal to reflect its true cost.  Stricter enforcement of existing laws and taxation are also a key component. A great deal of this discussion can be found in a recent publication by the World Bank entitled, “Environmental Crisis or Sustainable Development Opportunity?  Transforming the Charcoal Sector in Tanzania: A Policy Note.” The greatest challenge is providing an alternative to replace charcoal as these measures are put into action.  I direct ban will not work without a ready alternative, as has been proven in the past.

TCP: What can the government and other organizations does to support you?

DT: Consumer sensitization and market development are the greatest areas where is support is needed.  We all have to work together to mainstream alternatives, especially charcoal briquettes.  One way this can be done is to begin switching government institutions, such as schools and offices, to charcoal briquettes.  Briquettes offer an immediate replacement to wood based charcoal and creates jobs in rural areas rather than eliminating them.  It also keeps transporters and sellers in business.  This will allow the Government and other organizations to make the switch without causing any real disturbance to the charcoal value chain.

TCP: Any plans to sell carbon offsets?

DT: We do not have any accurate statistics on carbon offsets as of yet.  We are currently working with stakeholders to generate this information in the near future.  We have not received any carbon credits for our briquettes.

TCP: What would consider success?

DT:Currently Dar es Salaam alone consumes 50% of all charcoal in Tanzania, which amounts to 500,000 tons or 325 million dollars annually.  Charcoal briquettes represent less than .01% of this market.  Success within 2 years would be surpassing 1.0% of the total Dar es Salaam market and 5% after 5 years.  5% sounds small, but we are talking about 25,000 tons of charcoal a year.  Changing the market will be a slow and gradually process.

We thank Dennis for taking the time to answer our questions and we look forward to following up on ARTI-Tanzania’s briquette program. And we wish them the best of luck!

The Charcoal Project