Kampala | Wednesday
AN official of Royal Dutch/Shell said on Tuesday the company was studying the possibility of making a smokeless energy brick for cooking in African villages to reduce firewood consumption.
”Conceptually we have a solution. The question is to make it affordable,” said Jan Verloop, an executive in the Technology and Innovation Strategy department of Shell Global Solutions.
”Everybody has said it is an interesting idea,” he said, referring to fellow participants at a gathering of political and business leaders from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa.
Technical details were confidential, he said.
Verloop, based at the Anglo/Dutch energy giant’s headquarters in The Hague, said Shell was exploring the idea of producing solid liquid fuel briquettes at Shell refineries in Africa and selling them at retail stores.
He said he hoped that in two years time there would be a prototype being tested in one or more African countries to enable the company to find out whether the project was viable.
More than 80% of domestic household energy in sub-Saharan Africa is produced from firewood, with the remainder derived mostly from kerosene, liquified petroleum gas and burning dung.
Deforestation and the resultant weakening or destruction of the watershed function of hill forests poses a serious problem for farming, land management and water supply in Africa.
Burning of kerosene causes smoke that can be harmful in confined spaces while LPG is far too expensive for most African communities.
Verloop said the introduction of briquettes could only be done as part of government-backed programmes aimed at preserving forest cover.
The first areas likely to be targeted would be suburban areas and more developed villages with an established cash economy and a decreasing supply of nearby firewood.
Incentives for villagers would include saving time now spent looking for firewood. – Reuters