Firewood remains a highly important energy source for small businesses across Africa but it is, of course, highly polluting. One of the ways in which small-scale food production enterprises are reducing their CO2 emissions is through transitioning from traditional fuel sources to biofuels as a means of powering their production processes.
Supported by funding from SF and the UK Government, Origen Fresh is an East Africa-based for-profit social enterprise producing quality natural oils, including avocado oils and other vegetable and essential oils. One of the company’s products is avocado oil, the production of which generates an avocado waste product, pomace, which can itself be used as a biofuel, or converted into avocado briquettes, another form of biofuel.
Existing research into biomass briquettes has found that the briquettes produce fewer (in some cases 50% less) CO2 emissions compared with other fuel sources such as firewood and woodchips and it is cheaper.