Enhancing climate action at grassroots levels in least developed countries: Unlocking bio-briquetting opportunities for communities in Wajir, Vihiga, Kitui, and Kajiado Counties in Kenya

Abstract

Grassroots communities are often the hardest hit by climate change. They also appreciably contribute to the problem through activities like deforestation, land use changes, and cooking with firewood. Bio-briquettes from agricultural residues could mitigate this, but inadequate data hampers their adoption. In this work, feedstock from agricultural residues sourced from Wajir, Vihiga, Kitui, and Kajiado were used to make bio-briquette pellets that were studied to establish their calorific values using a bomb calorimeter. Feedstock sourced from Wajir, Vihiga, Kitui, and Kajiado counties had calorific values ranging from 32 kCal/kg to 4,523 kCal/kg for banana peels and groundnut husks, 2,970 kCal/kg and 4,381 kCal/kg for banana peels and sugarcane bagasse, 2,910 kCal/kg and 4,694 kCal/kg for tobacco waste and cotton stalks, and 3,110 kCal/kg and 4,100 kCal/kg for vegetable waste and wheat straw, respectively. Mixing low and high calorific value feedstock improved the heating values of bio-briquettes from low calorific feedstock.