Drivers and Barriers to Substituting Firewood with Biomass Briquettes in the Kenyan Tea Industry

Amalia Suryani, Alberto Bezama, Claudia Mair-Bauernfeind, Macben Makenzi and Daniela Thrän
Additional contact information
Amalia Suryani: Institute for Infrastructure and Resource Management, Universität Leipzig, Grimmaische Str. 12, 04109 Leipzig, Germany
Alberto Bezama: Department of Bioenergy, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Claudia Mair-Bauernfeind: Institute of System Science, Innovation and Sustainability Research, University of Graz, Merangasse 18/I, 8010 Graz, Austria
Macben Makenzi: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Riverside Drive, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
Daniela Thrän: Institute for Infrastructure and Resource Management, Universität Leipzig, Grimmaische Str. 12, 04109 Leipzig, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-24

Abstract: The tea industry in Kenya is among the main consumers of firewood for its intensive thermal energy demand. Along with the growing concerns about firewood depletion, tea factories have begun transitioning to alternative fuels to power their boilers. Briquettes made of biomass residues are among the promising solutions; however, they are not yet widely adopted. This study was conducted to identify the factors that motivate the tea factories to use biomass briquettes instead of firewood and the factors hindering such substitution. The substitution potential was assessed, and the drivers and barriers of the substitution were examined using a combination of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and a PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) framework. The findings suggest that even though using biomass briquettes is technically possible, it is not economically favorable for tea factories. The SWOT/PESTEL analysis identified 27 factors influencing the substitution. Among the key drivers are the depleting supply of firewood, the availability of biomass residues, and the external support from development organizations to improve the technical capacity in both tea and briquette industries. The study revealed the barriers to substitution include the cost competitiveness, insufficient supply, and varying quality of briquettes, as well as the lack of awareness and knowledge of briquettes.

Keywords: biomass briquettes; firewood substitution; tea industry; drivers and barriers; SWOT analysis; PESTEL analysis; thematic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5611/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5611/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5611-:d:809983

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().