A biogas maker is transforming the economy of Dunga Beach in Kisumu by using water hyacinth to produce biogas that powers a communal kitchen, commercial chicken brooder, and fish dryer.
Every day Dominic Kahumbu, the CEO of Flexi Biogas, and two of his employees take a boat into Lake Victoria not to fish but to scoop up 150-200 kilograms of freely floating water hyacinth. This is fed to a biogas digester that runs a brooder that warms 300 chicks, dries 200 kilograms of wet Omena and Ochonga for the beach’s fishers every few hours, and runs a kitchen that boils slow-to-cook grains and pulses for eight to fifteen people and restaurants every day.
Water hyacinth is an invasive water weed known for its characteristic lavender flowers and round leathery leaves. It is believed to have been first introduced to Kenya in the eighties as an ornamental crop on Lake Naivasha. It has since become a majour burden for fishermen at Lake Victoria where it covers over 12,000 hectares affecting the livelihoods of over 40 million people in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It has been reported to slow down economic activities at the Kisumu port by 70 per cent by choking the port and fish landing areas.
Water hyacinth produces biogas that has more methane than cow dung which means it produces a better quality of gas. Biogas slurry from water hyacinth also produces better soil nutrients than digested cow dung.
Every six to eight kilograms of water hyacinth produces around one kilogram of biogas.
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“We only harvest the mature hyacinth and in six to 18 days, the hyacinth mats double in size. Nothing can put that much biomass in such a short time. This quick regeneration makes it an ideal renewable source of biogas,” informed Dominic.
For him, water hyacinth is not really an invasive plant species but rather one that people have not fully explored to find useful economic uses for.
In ten minutes, Dominic and his team can gather 200 kilograms of water hyacinth from Lake Victoria. This is first chopped up to increase its surface area before being fed into the biogas digester. He mentions that the project is currently working at half its capacity but will soon ramp up biogas production.
“Many chicken farmers use charcoal to heat their chicks for two weeks after they have hatched. Using charcoal for brooding is however highly inefficient because it first requires a tree to be cut and much of the tree is left unutilised as a stump and its roots. When heating chicks, the charcoal heater is suspended two feet above ground or set up in a way that only one per cent of the heat is used so it does not burn or overheat the chicks,” he explained.
With the Flexi Biogas brooder, however, only the amount of heat the chicks require is used.
He further states that the current biogas setup can provide brooding heat for up to 4,000 chicks but he is pacing the project’s implementation. “Chicken rearing is not widely practiced at Dunga, we are not looking to be stuck with extra chicks that do not have a market for. We hope in time to build a big enough customer base,” he said.
In its communal kitchens, Flexi charges Sh50 for restaurants and families looking to cook grains that take them hours to cook consuming a lot of charcoal, firewood, or gas. This Dominic said has the added benefit of freeing them to do more economically beneficial and better things with their time than watching their food cook.
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Fishers and women dryers at Dunga can also dry their Omena and Ochunga catch with the biogas dryers. For Sh100 a tray, women who previously spent their entire day drying fish on nets and throwing stones at birds and dogs trying to teal their catch can now pop in 200 kilograms of wet fish and get 80-50 kilograms of already dried fish in under three hours.
Flexi Biogas is also about to kickstart a project to hyacinth cleanup project of River Wigwa in Nyalenda, together with the Kisumu County government. “We will be giving people who are unemployed in Nyalenda slum an opportunity to earn from collecting hyacinth which we will use to make biogas, fertiliser, and power communal kitchens,” Dominic said.