With over 30 fishmongers at the Kisumu beaches, at least Sh40,000 is spent on firewood, making it the most expensive raw material in the business.
To make matters worse, there are the attendant health and environmental risks that come with the burning of firewood.So it is no surprise that fishmongers are excited about the rollout of a project that utilises water hyacinth and fish waste to produce biogas, which has long been used in homes for cooking.
While speaking in an interview with The Standard yesterday,Eunice Anyango expressed relief at being freed from the daily hassles of hunting for the pricey firewood.
“This method has no heat or smoke unlike when using firewood. Once you are connected to the source, you are good to go. We are fast embracing it and hope that soon none of us will be using firewood,” she said.
According to Dominic Kahumba, who is implementing the project, water hyacinth has organic nutrients it obtains from the polluted lake. The nutrients are rich in methane, which when extracted is a major sources of natural fuel.
Once the weeds are harvested, they are put into a shredder which chops them into small pieces. The shredded hyacinth is then mixed with water in a ratio of 1:1 before being drained into a digester.
“The shredder, apart from just chopping the material, also expels excess air from the hyacinth, given that the weed is very buoyant,” said Mr Kahumba, who is the CEO of Biogas International Ltd.
The 15-metre long digester is divided into five stages, with the first comprising hydrolysis. At this stage, micro-organisms liquefy the solid matter before it moves to the acidogenosis stage where it is made slightly acidic.In the third stage, the acid is neutralised before the matter moves to the methogen stage where the actual gas is produced.
In the final stage the gas is collected and stored before being piped to external storage facilities or channeled for use.