How to use the briquettes

The last process of making briquettes is to dry them in a solar dryer or under a well-ventilated place, where they remain for four days before being packaged.

Drying fuel briquettes on the ground slows down the process as some pieces receive low amounts of sunlight. Spreading briquettes on rooftops speeds up the drying process, but results in breakages.

These forms of drying also expose briquettes to rain. The drying period depends on the raw material used, size of briquettes and the weather. Briquettes dry in less than three days during the dry season and take twice as long during the wet season. Those made from charcoal dust and paper dry faster than those made from charcoal dust and soil.

How to use the briquettes

When using the briquettes, light your charcoal stove with a little charcoal. When the charcoal has lit up, add the briquettes.

While cooking is that even when the small charcoal you use gets finished, the briquettes will remain hot and you can cook with them. Do not throw away your last bits of charcoal. With these three simple steps, you can save money. Briquette making can also be a money venture that you can involve your family members in.

Benefits of briquettes

• Briquettes are a clean cooking fuel that helps keep the environment safe and does not damage one's health since they are smokeless.

• Briquettes made of cow dung and charcoal dust burn for over four hours, compared to two-and-a-half-hours for regular charcoal.

•The briquettes emit neither smell nor sparks.

• Briquettes produce less smoke than charcoal and leave no soot on pots. Indeed, experiments have proved that the above type of fuel briquette reduces household indoor air pollution with carbon monoxide.

• Briquette production is a profitable business for the youth since materials used to make them are locally available and the demand for charcoal is high.

Marketing briquettes

You can sell five charcoal briquettes for sh1,000 and you can make around 1,000 briquettes in three hours. You will need half a bag of charcoal dust (sh6,000) and three wheelbarrows of cow dung (sh10,000) to make 1,000 briquettes.

To realise high sales, potential customers need information on the multiple benefits of fuel briquettes. Make some and give them to people for free so they understand that they burn hotter and for longer than normal charcoal.  

Compiled by Joshua Kato (editor Harvest Money) and Dr Jolly Kabirizi (livestock nutritionist consultant)