Insights from LUANAR: CJIF project's successes
A JOURNEY TO THE PRODUCTION OF BIOGAS AND BIO-SYNGAS
By Dora Nyirenda, Research Administrator, LUANAR
Wastes being the unusable materials as they are, who would want to do anything with them? But as the saying goes, what can be seen irrelevant to a certain discipline can be relevant to another, for instance, one discipline can think agricultural and municipal wastes do not have any use but here are some scientists, academicians and local people who think that these wastes have the potential to produce energy to help in tackling the issues of climate change.
To validate this, a research project titled ‘Development of sustainable clean cooking facilities to boost resilience to climate change in Malawi’ was funded by the Scottish Government Climate Justice Innovation fund. Different partners namely LUANAR, Abundance worldwide, LEAD, University of Glasgow and Fab engineering partnered with Dr Nader Karimi to work on it. LUANAR’s aim was to conduct surveys on waste availability by studying agricultural and other organic wastes in different parts of the country especially in 6 districts of Nkhotakota and Lilongwe the central part of Malawi, Karonga and Mzimba districts the northern part of Malawi and Machinga specifically in Mbando village and Chikwawa district in the southern part of Malawi in Feb/March/ April of 2020. There after doing the chemical analyses of the wastes.
What an exciting opportunity for LUANAR to be part of the project as it triggered the minds to know more about agricultural and municipal wastes usefulness in production of energy. In Malawi, the general understanding has been that most agricultural wastes have performed poorly in production of biogas and bio-syngas and as such they have mainly been left idle leading to continued use of firewood that leads to deforestation.
Well not anymore as different solutions are coming up through the use of municipal and agricultural wastes to produce bio-fuels which are then burned in a novel gas cooker. Indeed this will save Mother Malawi from high deforestation rate that it has recorded in the recent years in Africa (Ngwira S & Watanabe T, 2019).
Members from LUANAR conducted surveys in the mentioned districts, some of the common biomass and/ or organic wastes that were found and samples collected were cassava peelings, bean shells, rice husks, bagasse, molasses, maize bran, cow dung, sorghum stems, sorghum fruit, goat droppings and many more. Another waste that was mentioned that some members had responded was plastic wastes; well one would wonder if this is a biomass waste, right? Not strictly speaking though, the origin maybe biomass in fossil form. For some thoughts some might think to study on this and see if these plastics wastes can be useful in generating energy.
Interestingly, some respondents said that most of the crop and livestock wastes are used for crop production as a source of nutrients which is a very good use. Though this is the case, many of them demonstrated that such wastes were not adequately utilized which gives a window of using these wastes in the production of energy.
Bagasse being one such type of wastes that is produced in abundance by the sugar industries as well as residents in sugar growing areas, this waste was found that excess of it is left unused even after the sugar processing companies have burned it to produce electricity. Perhaps, this can be a raw material in areas where it is in excess to produce biogas and bio-syngas.
The waste sample raw materials that were collected were analysed for components that determine suitability of biomass for biogas and bio-syngas production. Carbon: Nitrogen (C: N) ration in the range of 10:30 was used to guide quality aspects related to the intended use. Fortunately, the sampled wastes were within the range that is suitable for biogas production. Most interestingly, all the chemical elements seen as impurities that would reduce the efficiency of the value of the biomass in the production of biogas in the sampled wastes were below the limits of copper (mg/kg) of 10.00, Zinc (mg/kg) 350.00, Nickel (mg/kg) 100 and Chromium (mg/kg) thresholds.
As successful as the surveys and analyses were, Mbando Village in Machinga district was ready to do the trials as the abundant wastes there were rice husks and cow dung. The trials are a success, biogas and bio-syngas are now being produced used for cooking at Mbando.
Insights from Abundance: CJIF project's successes
Fuelling Environmental Conservation: Saving trees in Mbando community
By Stewart Paul, Abundance
In a country with very low access to electricity at 11 % (World Bank, 2020), Malawi is bound to a heavy reliance on biomass as fuel for cooking meals, both at small/household to medium/commercial scale. Between March 2020 and February 2021, I participated in a study on “Sustainable Clean Cooking Facilities to boost resilience to climate change in Malawi”. Funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Innovation Fund (CJIF), the project aimed to help address deforestation in southern Malawi (Machinga) through delivering a sustainable biofuel production using organic waste as fuel for clean and efficient cooking. Designed in Glasgow and built by FabEngineering in Blantyre, the technology might just be a long term solution towards curbing heavy reliance on charcoal and fuelwood for food preparation, especially at a medium scale.
From attending bi-weekly management meetings to leading data analysis of the 2 surveys conducted in Machinga district between September 2020 and January 2021 I would consider myself as having closely worked with the rest of the partners as well as Abundance team on this project. The first survey was on waste collectors analysing the waste collection process, preparation of food, collection of fuel for cooking and knowledge of the environmental impact of burning fuels for cooking. The major findings were that maize stalks are the most common waste type found in Mbando community and that the majority of the stalks are collected at a fee. Also, it is mainly women who prepare food and the preparation process takes around one hour. Whereas mixed views characterised our enquiry on the importance of knowing the fuel type being used, the majority of the survey respondents showed wide knowledge on the environmental impacts of burning fuels, which largely border on the destruction of the physical environment. By successfully designing, delivering and piloting a cooking technological innovation that does not use fuelwood, I am compelled to conclude that the project was a success and it delivered on its aim and objectives.
My contribution towards the overall success of the project was mainly attributed to the cordial working relationship with all the partners: LUANAR, FAB Engineering, LEAD and the University of Glasgow. I hope the outcomes and outputs from this project will be used for further research and development of the technology and thereby substantially contribute towards our common drive and urgency to reduce people’s reliance on the “lungs of the land” for food preparation. By training community members on how to use the tested technologies, the project ensured that the community continues to benefit and conserve the environment through its sustainable use. Stakeholder engagements conducted towards the close of the project saw heightened participation and raised interest from crucial players in the area of energy such as the University of Malawi (Chancellor College and the Polytechnic) and the Scotland-Malawi partnership. Furthermore, the presentation of the project at the Machinga District Executive Committee (DEC) meeting was one of the key milestones as it ensures that the project is not only recognised but appreciated and appraised at the local government level.
IMPACT STORY: How an SFA Webinar influenced the curricula of an educational institution in Malawi
By Dora Nyirenda, Research Administration, Malawi Hub
Edited by: Alex Maxwell, PGR, UK
During the COVID-19 pandemic, while most people were locked in their homes, the internet helped SFA continue to connect. The SFA Malawi Hub was privileged to host a webinar with Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil on Ecosystem Based Disaster Risk Reduction at the end of April, 2020. The Director of Mzimba Christian Vocational School (MCVS) – a faith-based educational institution in Malawi which takes on ten students every year from across Malawi – and his staff, participated in the webinar which aimed at educating, informing and sharing knowledge on Ecosystem Disaster Risk Reduction. As an institution that tries to implement technology through applied research to develop solutions for the local context, the staff were able to learn examples of how ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction can be applied to disasters.
The webinar was a knowledge sharing session, but could prove to have a deeper and longer-lasting impact for Malawi more generally, with the MCVS staff inspired to change their curricula to include the topic. The curriculum developed through the webinar aims to tackle disasters such as floods, droughts, strong winds, and land-slides. Lorent Mvula, the Director of Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Management of MCVS explains on how this is useful for the future of Malawians, ‘Using the Ecosystem Based Disaster Risk Reduction information in the curriculum can help reduce vulnerability in exposed communities’. It is believed that including ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (EBDRR) in the curriculum will inform people and communities on the means to saving lives and peoples’ properties through critically thinking about the different ways to tackle everyday challenges.
Staff believe the course will help students to understand the symbiotic interdependence between variables within the ecosystem which will then mitigate communities from destroying the local ecosystems. The knowledge gained can then be disseminated countrywide and support ecosystems across Malawi. There are additional requirements for the new curriculum to be successful, from teaching materials to building instructors capacities but it is believed that with this support, communities across Malawi will be better equipped and more resilient to dealing with the damaging effects from natural disasters.
*Post based on an interview with Mzimba Christian Vocational School Director and Staff (Interviewer: Dora Nyirenda)
A life changed - Narrative from a fresh University of Glasgow Alumnus
By Stewart Paul, SFA Malawi Hub
The past 12 months of my life (September 2019 to August 2020) have been quite defining. It was the first time that I lived outside Africa, in search of a “good” education. Through a prestigious Scottish Funding Council (SFC)-Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) funded project, I was able to access high quality postgraduate education at the “World Changing” University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. I have been able to get international exposure and connections to professionals from various institutions such as the Glasgow School of Arts and Glasgow Dental Hospital and School. I have also received professional development trainings such as the Graduate Skills Program (GSP) and the Professional Skills Program (PSP) offered by the University of Glasgow – College of Social Sciences.
The scholarship that I was awarded had a research budget attached to it – which would have necessitated me to travel to and undertake research activities in Malawi. My research interest was on the implications – for access and attainment – of foreign aid on education policy and practice in Malawi. Although I managed to travel to Malawi between December 2019 and January 2020 for pre-research activities, I was not able to proceed with the rest of the research plan due to the unprecedented impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic. Regardless, I was able to carry out a robust piece of research after changing the study design and methodology.
The studentship supported me to build academic skills that turn out to be very pivotal in enabling me to progress in my career trajectory in socio-ecological sustainability and community education in Malawi. The academic and research skills, the expanded international experience and network, and the outputs and outcomes of this research will put me in a strong position to develop this work through doctoral studies, through direct research contribution to the Malawian Sustainable Futures in Africa (SFA) hub in general and Abundance NGO specifically, and to the education and development sector more broadly. In the end, I hope and intend to significantly contribute to changing other people’s lives, especially youths in the area of education and development.
Development of clean cooking facilities to boost climate change resilience in Malawi
By Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, Co-Director Sustainable Futures in Arica and Co-Founder Abundance
The University of Glasgow’s project on “Sustainable Clean Cooking Facilities to boost resilience to climate change in Malawi” was amongst three out of over 30 applications that were funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Innovation Fund (CJIF) in 2019. This fund supports the delivery of climate justice related projects which field test the feasibility of new methods, technologies or approaches in tackling climate change, or trial new innovations on the path to scale.
This bioenergy project aims to help address deforestation in southern Malawi (Machinga) through delivering a sustainable biofuel production (biogas and biosyngas) using organic waste as fuel for clean and efficient cooking. The total funding is £122,583 and the project is implemented by the University of Glasgow (PI Dr. Nader Karimi) with partners in Malawi; Abundance, Fab Engineering, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and LEAD.
The partnership in this project goes back to 2016, when Dr.Karimi and Dr.Pullanikkatil were connected through Sustainable Futures in Africa network. Between 2017-2018, Dr.Karimi and his colleagues from the University of Glasgow led a Biomass Energy study in partnership with Abundance to understand Malawi’s specific energy issues. Seeing first-hand that people still use the three stone stove, that women walk far distances to collect firewood, the rampant deforestation and that even simple fuel efficient technologies were not widely used in Malawi, inspired Dr.Karimi to think of a solution specifically “engineered” for Malawi. Dr.Pullanikkatil undertook a residency at the University of Glasgow in 2018, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which gave her the opportunity to engage further with Karimi and connect him to colleagues in Malawi, who later became partners of this CJIF project.
This project addresses the need for clean energy and contributes towards improving energy security using a novel and innovative technology designed for Malawi. In Malawi only 11% of the population have access to electricity and 98% of people use wood fuel for cooking (a figure that remains unchanged since 2010). Exposure to smoke from cooking has severe negative health impacts and even in urban areas of Malawi, firewood is mainly used in open three-stone fires. The use of firewood and charcoal has contributed significantly to deforestation and the need for cleaner energy sources which are more efficient for cooking is much needed in Malawi. Majority of the clean energy interventions in Malawi focus on using “less” firewood or charcoal, through increasing efficiency of stoves, this project improves on this approach by eliminating firewood altogether as fuel and replacing it with organic waste.
The project responds to the needs of Malawi as articulated by its Government. Regionally, clean and efficient Energy is a priority as noted in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s Protocol on Energy, to which Malawi has been a signatory since 1996. Nationally, the overarching development master plan for Malawi is the “Malawi Growth and Development Strategy” or MGDS. The latest MGDS III has ranked Energy as one of its five key priority areas and calls for technologies that can aid rural areas to have affordable, clean and efficient energy. Furthermore, Malawi’s Climate Change Policy and Strategy has acknowledged the need for efficient and clean energy to help Malawi reach its climate action goals.
Abundance’s Ruth Mumba and Grace Moyo visited Fab engineering where Andrew Khonje was manufacturing the gasifier plant.
Using an innovative approach of combining biogas and biosyngas, this project is developing a clean and efficient energy technology that can help Malawians rise the energy ladder and also contribute towards achieving climate action goals. The reason to combine biogas and biosyngas technology is due to Malawi’s unique climate; a hot and rainy season from mid-November to April and a relatively cool and dry season from mid-May to mid-August. During the wet season, plenty of wet orgnic waste will be available, while in the dry season, it will be dry organic waste. A technology that can only work with wet biomass/organic matter will not be suitable for the dry season and vice versa; hence this innovative combination of biogas and biosyngas. Furthermore, this innovative technology is completely smokeless, which is different from the previously piloted efficient cooking technologies such as fuel-efficient stoves, which reduce smoke, but not completely remove it.
Through this project, a nationwide survey on biomass availability and its combustion properties was done by LUANAR in March 2020. Fab Engineering has assembled the energy plant with designs and instruction from the PI and colleagues from University of Glasgow. Currently, the plant is being tested with various types of waste including cow dung and rice husks, both of which are wastes readily available in the site where the technology will be piloted. The energy plant will be piloted at the kitchen of the Chilimba Primary school at Mbando village, where Abundance has been working since 2016. Abundance has set up a youth waste collection team of 10 men and 10 women, who have begun collecting dry and wet wastes at Mbando village. They have been able to find rice husks from a nearby rice mill, sugarcane waste and cowdung from smallholder farms within the village.
The testing of the cooker is ongoing and preliminary results are promising, as evident in the pictures where the gas flame successfully boiled water in a pot. Abundance’s Ruth Mumba and Grace Moyo visited Fab engineering where Andrew Khonje was manufacturing the gasifier plant.
COVID-19 has challenged the project team to undertake work with less physical contact with Mbando villagers. Meetings were held at the village with safe distancing. Malawi did not have a lockdown, however the team shared masks, cleaning materials with Mbando village and purchased a smartphone to ease communication for the Community Coordinator. As the number of cases of COVID-19 declined in the past weeks, a site visit was done on 8 October 2020 by Fab engineering and Abundance’s team. Stewart Paul, who recently returned from the University of Glasgow with a master’s degree joined Ruth Mumba and Grace Moyo in the visit.
The site chosen for the piloting is a kitchen used by Mary’s Meals, a Scottish charity that provides nutritious mid-day meals to children. Abundance shared the project idea with them and were delighted when they delivered 732kg of Corn Soya Blend (CSB) flour to Abundance’s offices in Zomba which will be used for the piloting phase. During piloting phase CSB porridge will be cooked and served to approximately 1200 children in the primary school. The partnership and generocity of Mary’s Meals in this project is much appreciated.
It is already well reflected in the open literature that extensive use of firewood and charcoal has led to massive deforestation and significant health issues in Malawi. This project aims to address the deforestation problem using organic waste in an innovative cooker instead of firewood or charcoal. The users of the technology are Mary’s Meals staff and teachers from Chilimba Primary School in Mbando village. In this regard, an indemnity form has also been signed by Abundance and Chilimba school to indemnify Mary’s Meals of any issues arising from the project. The piloting will be done for several weeks where the cooker will be tested. These users will be interviewed to improve the technology design and a reengineered design will be made that addresses their concerns. This way, the design is informed by local knowledge. After completion of the project, the system stays in the school and will be a permanent asset for the Mbando community. The project results will be widely disseminated through networks such as the SFA and private sector in Malawi will be encouraged to upscale the technology. The project will end in March 2021 and it is hoped it will leave a lasting legacy at Mbando village.
Interview with Dr Pullanikkatil - the Nation on Sunday
By Vanessa Duclos, Research Manager
Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil has been interviewed by the Nation on Sunday about her work with Abundance. The article in the newspaper highlights Abundances successful initiatives and their impact for the Mmando Village and beyond. You can access the interview here.
Well done Deepa and team Abundance!
” We want the village to then in-turn empower other villages in creating ripple effects since our dream is to have a world of plenty, where there is no lack, for humans and nature to thrive.” – Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil.
Update on the CJIF Bioenergy project in Malawi
By Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, Founder of Abundance
The Scottish Government Climate Justice Innovation Fund funded project “Development of sustainable clean cooking facilities to boost resilience to climate change in Malawi” is proceeding despite the COVID-19 restrictions. The team at Abundance is holding biweekly meetings with Dr Nader Karimi who is the PI for this project and with LEAD, LUANAR and Fab Engineering as partners.
LUANAR completed the survey on waste availability by studying agricultural and other organic waste available in different parts of the country in March/April 2020. Manufacturing on the prototype of biogas/biosyngas cooker has begun by Fab Engineering in Blantyre. This prototype will be piloted in the kitchen of the primary school at Mbando village in August 2020. Abundance held a meeting at Mbando village on 19 May with safe distancing to mobilise youth at Mbando village to collect dry and wet waste ahead of the piloting. Care will be taken to ensure gender balance within this youth team.
This project pilots an innovative technology specifically made for Malawi’s unique wet and dry seasons (which generate wet and dry organic waste). The dry and wet waste will be separately fed into a gasifier plant (biogas/biosyngas) to create energy for a cooker that can work year round. The technology is smokefree and has no negative health implications. A study on social and cultural aspects of using the cooker technology will be conducted by Abundance in August 2020.
A draft questionnaire is being prepared for the same and SFA members who are interested in this project and wish to review it are welcome to contact Abundance (abundance.future@gmail.com).
Waste management in small urban context - Malawi
By Dora Nyirenda, Research Administrator of the Malawi hub
On January 11th 2020, I had the privilege to visit the Mzuzu (Nsilo) dumpsite located in the Northern part of Malawi. This opportunity arose while making arrangements for the symposium/workshop that was initially planned to take place in Mzuzu, Malawi.
The dumpsite was a project of Mzuzu City Council in conjunction with Plan Malawi, implemented with funding from the European Union. The facility was to be finished and put into use in 2017, but unfortunately, the place started being used without being fully finished, which made it a place that was perfect for breeding flies due to the lack of waste management. This is especially problematic because the facility is close to people’s homes and a primary school and that flies can be a vector of many diseases and infections.
I visited the area where the dumpsite was when the people were protesting on the 10th January 2020. I asked one of the community members why they were protesting, and she said, ’The unfinished facility is breeding and harbouring a lot of flies. We cannot eat or prepare our foods in the open as the flies land in our food, which puts our health at risk.’ It was on that day that the angry and concerned community members set fire to the facility, which has been closed.
This marked the end of the people’s patience. Before the facility was set on fire, the community members were promised that chemicals would be applied frequently to kill the flies, but this was not happening. The dumpsite was close to a primary school, meaning that flies were landing in the school children’s food.
One of the community members said, ‘We were told that the facility would have machines inside that would be processing and grinding the waste, and that the end product would be manure, which would even benefit the community. But this has not been happening as the facility started being used before they finished constructing it.’ This raised the interesting question of whether the community gave a consent to the facility’s construction or if they were even asked for their views and concerns before the dumpsite project was implemented. This is an example of a problematic situation where planners did not consult properly the local communities and where the implementation of the initiatives did not lead to the expected outcomes. Unless environmental initiatives are context appropriate and involve local communities from inception, the impact can’t be guaranteed.
The Malawi hub is working on a project proposal to investigate the local challenges in implementing solid waste management in Mzuzu and to facilitate the identification of potential situated solutions.
Cooking up a Sustainable Solution to Malawi’s Energy Crisis
By Deepa Pullanikkatil and Dave Gerow
Cooking is one of the key contributors to Malawi’s significant energy crisis. At present, nearly the entire population uses firewood or charcoal to cook their meals. This has resulted in rapid deforestation, damaging agricultural activities and ultimately intensifying poverty. It’s also linked to serious health problems because of air quality issues associated with burning wood and charcoal indoors.
Malawi’s dependence on charcoal and firewood as fuel has only grown with the effects of climate change. Frequent droughts have resulted in the loss of thousands of fishing jobs and hurt the country’s ability to produce hydroelectric power, all of which increases the people’s dependence on coal and firewood for both fuel and employment. The result is that Malawi has the highest deforestation rate in southern Africa, with children and women engaged in the difficult labour of firewood collection. Now more than ever, there is a vital need for sustainable and clean cooking technologies in Malawi.
To address this need, the Scottish government announced a competition in October 2019. The winners of the Climate Justice Innovation Fund were a consortium including the University of Glasgow and several partners in Malawi: Lead Southern and Eastern Africa, Abundance, FAB Engineering and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). The project, which builds on earlier research on energy fuel conducted in Malawi by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Abundance, will last 16 months with a total grant of £122,583. The team consists of engineers, industrialists, entrepreneurs, environmental scientists and local activists, and is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Nader Karimi of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Glasgow. The team members met through the Sustainable Futures in Africa (SFA) Network and previous collaborations.
This project aims to create a solution to Malawi’s cooking problem by using agricultural and municipal waste to produce bio-fuels which are then burned in a novel gas cooker. The key objectives are:
1- To deliver a ‘Bioenergy Kit’: a sustainable biofuel production (biogas and biosyngas) and utilization unit for clean and efficient cooking.
2- To manufacture and maintain this Bioenergy Kit in Malawi and attract attention from local businesses.
This innovative project combines two methods of biofuel generation to widen the range of biomass that can be used for fuel production. It further introduces a novel, robust cooker technology that can greatly reduce the cost of fuel processing, making the technology economically viable. Local manufacturing, maintenance, operation and marketing of the Bioenergy Kit will create local jobs, contributing to the empowerment of communities and the alleviation of poverty.
The Bioenergy Kit will be created at the University of Glasgow in close collaboration with the Malawian partners and will be engineered specifically for the Malawian situation. In line with Malawi’s waste availability, both dry waste and wet waste can both be used as fuel. The technology will be completely smoke-free, with a chimney that will be adapted based on users’ input. It will be piloted at a lunch kitchen in a primary school in Mbando village, where Abundance has been working since 2016. With this technology, the team hopes to collaborate on a sustainable solution to Malawi’s pressing energy crisis.
You can see the announcement of the grant here: https://www.corra.scot/grants/international-development/
Success for Abundance Fundraiser; eLearning Center secured for rural Malawi!
Abundance graduated from the GlobalGiving Accelerator program, becoming a regonised partner, through successfully raising $5,538 from 60 unique individual donors in 18 days in June 2018 to support their project, "Build an eLearning Center in rural Malawi!".
eLearning provides many benefits to rural community, as through this they can stay up-to-date with information that can help improve their lives. Abundance therefore sought help through GlobalGiving to fundraise for setting up an eLearning center at the village we work in. Donations were received from USA, UK, Canada, Malawi, Singapore, South Africa, India, Qatar, Swaziland and many more. Sustainable Futures in Africa network partners also donated to support this. The funds received will be used to purchase solar panels, Keepods, keepod-ready laptops, furniture and for holding training sessions at the eLearning center.
GlobalGiving is the first and largest global crowdfunding community that connects nonprofits, donors, and companies in nearly every country around the world. Having participated in the June 2018 Accelerator program, Abundance has been vetted and approved and are now recognized partners of GlobalGiving.
Here is the link to Abundance’s project: http://goto.gg/33386
