Gusii Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union(GCFCU)has embarked on processing of coffee husks into charcoal briquettes as part of its efforts to protect the environment from the menace of dumping husks at the Union's coffee milling site.
The Union Chief Executive Officer, Robert Mainya has disclosed the installation of a briquette making machine at the Union is part of a project to make use of the husks.
Speaking to this writer in his Kahawa House Office, Mainya clarified that the Union established the project to tap on the potential of the coffee milling waste to produce environmentally-friendly charcoal briquettes for both domestic and industrial use.
The CEO also disclosed that the project targets domestic and industrial consumers who rely on wood fuel to embrace the new source of energy for cooking and factory processing especially tea processing.
Besides addressing environmental challenges posed by dumping of the husks at the Union compound, Mainyadisclosed that the project aims at scale down the rate at which trees in the area are cut for both domestic and industrial fuel exposing the region to the dangers of desertification.
"As a Union management we thought it wise to turn coffee husks dumped within our compound into charcoal briquettes for both domestic and industrial use to enhance environmental safety and protection in the region," stated Mainya.
He said,the project will makes use of husks from mbuni and parchment husks which are carbonized and ground into various sizes of briquettes before packaging is done.
The charcoal briquette processing machine will be producing 978 Kg per hour. It will be producing one inch domestic briquettes and one and half inch briquettes for industrial use.
"The briquettes will be packed starting from 5g,10,25 and 50kg and packaging will be based on the market demand for the charcoal,"disclosed Mainya
Mainya encouraged area residents to embrace the coffee husks charcoal,saying,it was not only environment friendly,but was also pocket friendly to low income clients.
Mainya challenged area tea factories to embrace the charcoal briquettes for their industrial tea processing needs to reduce their cost of fuel as the new source of energy was cost effective.