RnD-Africa: Three KNUST students Create Smokeless Charcoal

Did you know that smokeless charcoal
exists in Ghana and even in Africa?

BidiGreen Ghana Limited,
a company located in Kumasi

is doing amazing
with its extraordinary charcoal

that presents extra and amazing features.

This is what we bring you
on RnD-Africa on AAU TV.

Stay tuned, we’ll bring you more.

[Music]

BidiGreen Ghana Limited
is a renewable energy company

that focuses on producing charcoal
from crop waste

mostly coconut husk
and pumpkin nut shells

but we also rely
on a variety of raw materials

available based on demand.

Now BidiGreen burns three times longer.

It is smokeless

and an efficient source of energy
for cooking.

Firewood has for so long been

a major source of energy
for domestic purposes.

Along the line, innovative minds realized

that a better substitute could be made
out of firewood just by burning it

and that is how
charcoal is traditionally made.

The first criterion for production
is to have ultra-dry raw materials

with a moisture content of about 0 to 15%,
to make production efficient.

It takes about 6 hours
to fully carbonize all the crop waste.

What really makes BidiGreen innovative

is the smokeless feature of the charcoal.

Cooks all over the world have been exposed

to much more advanced means of cooking

such as a gas or an electric stove.

Although charcoal has been substituted
with better options

its relevance has not
entirely been relegated.

Till date,

a wide range of people
find major usefulness for charcoal

as it has been used by kebab sellers,

household cooks,

industrial cooks, amongst others.

BidiGreen is a climate-centered company

involved in the renewable energy sector

and our main aim is to provide

an alternative raw material
to producing charcoal

instead of using hardwood charcoal.

Hence all activities around

pushing for a more
sustainable environment

with our waste-sourced charcoal.

Many users of charcoal tend to complain about the excess ash that it produces,

its weight and high consumption, its inability to be regulated,

and its hazardous effect.

It is in the midst of these complaints by charcoal users

that comes an innovative solution by BidiGreen Ghana Limited,

a group of three students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

These innovative minds came together to produce charcoal

that is three times stronger than the usual charcoal in the market.

It has a smokeless feature,

it is molded to few specific purposes among other innovative features.

So we are currently at where BidiGreen Ghana Limited

which produces its extra extra extraordinary charcoal.

This is where began and we’ll take you through the process

but before that I have with me here the cofounder of BidiGreen Ghana Limited

and I’ll have him introduce himself.

I’m Emmanuel Obeng Frimpong.

I’m in charge of the production at BidiGreen Ghana Limited.

Okay, it’s nice meeting you and I can see that you are doing a massive job here.

I’m actually very impressed.

So quickly take us through the process of

converting these coconut husks among other raw materials

to make the activator charcoal.

Okay so as you can see the raw material, the coconut husks.

You also have pumpkin shells and corncobs.

These are the numerous raw materials we use here.

So, we select our source and then we dry them.

And after drying we process it into the carbonizer

where we carbonize it under controlled conditions

and high temperatures to achieve a carbonized product that is a char.

So, it takes about five to eight hours to carbonize it.

After that we take it through the milling process,

addition of our binder, and mixing...

We then mold it into various shapes based on the customer’s specifications.

So did you have a specific quantity of coconut husks

combined with other materials that you have to use?

Mostly that’s our trade secret.

We have a combination of those various raw materials.

We combine it in various proportions

in order to achieve the customer’s specifications.

So that makes our products more exceptional

compared to the products that would use just one raw material.

But we use a combination of various raw materials.

So this is pumpkin nut shell,

we are currently sun-drying it.

These are not in fact shells, so we are just sun drying it.

We are waiting for it to dry.

We’ve already filled the carbonizer with some of the pumpkin nut shells.

Once we are done with that we refill, then continue the process.

So basically that’s how it is.

There’s our carbonizer and this is where we do the carbonizing of the raw materials

after it has been sun dried or it has been dried.

So there are three chambers within the carbonizer.

We fill each cylinders or chambers with the raw materials.

We apply the heat through this section.

We heat it, it’s an enclosed system

in order to prevent letting the smoke out

and causing other environmental hazards.

It’s an enclosed system

that tries to control the flow of the smoke,

in a very controlled manner.

Does that in any way contribute to the fact

that once your charcoal is ready, it doesn’t produce smoke?

Not necessarily.

Once we are carbonizing,

definitely we are trying to get rid of

some of the compounds within the raw materials.

And also, definitely, they would try to escape.

That’s another aspect of it.

Once it carbonises there wouldn’t be any smoke coming out

from the carbonized products

but right now our system is designed in a way that it prevents extra pollution

while you are processing the raw materials.

So as the smokeless nature of our products

is after we've carbonized it.

Within the carbonizing process we ensure that it prevents pollution.

After that, products that is being turned out

is also a product that’s smokeless and it is harmless.

So I can see that there are different charcoals

and I think it all comes in different shapes.

Do you have any specific reason for making your charcoals that way?

Okay so, over the years, we’ve gone to modify most of our products

from different shapes basically based on the customer demands.

Some comes with customer specifications.

And in this xxxxx it enhances its quality in terms of burning.

You can see that this one has two lips with a hole.

basically what it does is it enhances its fast drying

because there’s enough air circulation and heat penetration.

Also, in terms of burning,

it enhances its burning because the hole allows air penetration.

So basically this is the reason.

Now some are also pellet sized.

This doesn’t look as heavy as this.

Yes because it's smaller in size and this is larger.

This is tech 4.

We use a different machinery for this.

This also uses different machine.

This one is mostly for the barbecue,

mostly for slow heating,

for grilling and for roasting and such things.

That's what we use these for...

for large cooking basically.

So this one it’s quite heavier and durable as well.

Placing heavy load on it wouldn’t really break it

as compared to this smaller sized one.

So that’s basically the difference.

This, as it has an enhanced air circulation for heat, continuous heat.

It also is very durable thus preventing breakage

and it is used for large cooking

in restaurants, in chop bars, in homes.

This is basically for home grilling.

The people have had the chance to use quite a number of charcoals

and I don’t think I’ve come across any charcoal

that is as heavy as the ones I see here.

I mean, why is it like that?

Okay so, as I said earlier on it’s not just about one product.

You don’t just have one product in here.

It’s a combination of different materials,

That also enhances its heaviness.

I’ve realized that pumpkin nut has a heavier weight

compared to coconut shells as well as rice husk and also the corncobs -

the various raw materials we use.

See, a combination of that brings about the heaviness.

So basically that defines the differences in the weights.

Also, you’ve mentioned quite a number of features but

does your charcoal present any other additional features

that the ones in the market do not present?

Well as you just said it’s very heavy and durable.

I should tell you that it takes very long time to fully burn

and one amazing thing is that even after burning,

once you’ve exhausted the entire thing,

you could also the ash for warming your foodstuff, your water.

Whether you are warming water or you want to heat your food,

, just the ash is good for the warming.

So, it’s a whole new product on its own.

It lasts longer, it's smokeless natue and it's durability

and it’s high heat intensity because of its high calorific value

It has a very heat intensity compared to the local meat charcoal.

So, with its durability you could also say that it’s very cost effective

in the sense that it’s burning time is two or three times longer than traditional charcoal.

You could use like about four bags of traditional charcoal

when we use only one and half sacs of our charcoal.

So it is cost effective.

It's very cost effective.

The BidiGreen team provides green means of using charcoal

with long lasting features.

This is where we end this episode of RnD-Africa on AAU TV

with BidiGreen located in the Asanti region of Ghana

and I hope you had a good show.

Follow AAU TV for more content.

My name is Maame Ekua Otuakoa Nyame.