Valorisation of food industry Waste using Kenya’s Solar resource (VoWS)

About the project

UK-registered Partner: Brunel University London – Harjit Singh
Africa-registered Partner: Kijani Testing Limited – Kinya Kimathi

VoWS project focussed on addressing the challenge of treating and valorising waste produced by Kenyan food processing industry. Currently the waste generated by the food processing industry is left to decay in unengineered landfills releasing toxins that contaminate land, water and air. Also the waste products are a direct loss of income which could be generated by producing electricity from biogas and biofertilizer from digestate.

Through direct interaction with Kenyan industry partner, Kijani Testing Limited, a stakeholders’ workshop was organised in Nairobi. Several local industries including Frigoken, Milly Fruits and academic researchers from Kenyatta University, Pwani University, Strathmore University and Jomo Kenyatta University attended the event.

Brunel team shared a detailed summary of their knowledge, expertise and experience of developing solar assisted thermophilic anaerobic bioreactors. Local experts spoke about the technological and policy related challenges faced by the food processing industry. Research topics for future funding calls such as Energy Catalyst Round 10 were discussed and an preliminary consortium developed.

The workshop included a break-up groups who were given questions on relevant challenges on research, policy, marketing, finance and industrial issues. The responses from the break-up groups were meticulously collated by Brunel team. Several potential collaborators for (i) commercialising Brunel’s research outputs and (ii) collaborating on future research and innovation calls were identified.