Kasama Fix
Launch of iDeal-x Innovation “Kasama Fix” mobile charcoal retort
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New mobile, slow pyrolysis technology developed in Namibia brings about process improvement, optimisation and efficient biomass conversion in the charcoal industry.
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Charcoal is the main product made from indigenous encroacher bush species and Namibia is the 5th largest barbeque charcoal exporter globally. The charcoal industry provides more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in rural Namibia and is therefore a main contributor to rural poverty mitigation in large parts of the country.However, the production is mainly based on inefficient conversion technology and processes which is cause for concern in terms of labour dissatisfaction, a high degree of unused by-products and unsustainable environmental practices. The introduction of the Namibian FSC Standard in 2019 seeks to greatly address and mitigate these socio-environmental risks.
Read full storyResearch and development were conducted into improved charcoal production in Namibia in 2016/2017. This initiative was funded as a cooperation between the Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU) and the GIZ Bush Control and Biomass Utilisation Project; iDealX led this project. The first fuel efficient mobile retort “RIX” was developed and introduced to the public as a first step towards mobilein 2017.
The investigation into the technologies was premised on it emitting less harmful smoke, reducing the fire hazard, being comparably cheap, easy to handle and move around, and delivering higher charcoal yields and quality. The composition of charcoal yield was to include higher amounts of lumpy charcoal, i.e. to increase the 80mm sieve size fraction of charcoal as much as possible as compared to kiln-processes. The new slow pyrolysis retort technology was required to cost less than EUR700 per retort to produce, and where possible, remain similar to the current mobile kiln-technology.
iDealX continued to develop and trial mobile carbonisation equipment at own costs. This resulted in the Kasama Fix mobile retort being introduced to the market in 2019.
Even though the new, mobile technology is still in its early commercialisation stage, the Kasama Fix Retort shows promising results.
The new mobile retort, called “Kasama Fix Mobile Retort”, has outstanding mobility, coupled with a short turnaround time of one carbonisation cycle per day, regardless of the type of feedstock to be carbonised. It delivers the optimal process controls, cost sensitiveness is maintained in terms of its returns, relating to the short process times and higher yields of big, lumpy pieces of charcoal.
The “Kasama Fix Mobile Retort” delivers an average net yield of about 32-34% charcoal, on a total wood-to-char weight basis. It is easy to use, and operational features are very similar to the standard Namibian drum kiln, making handling comparable. It delivers a fixed carbon content of between 66% and 80%, depending on the charcoal clients requirements. The versatility of feedstock that can be carbonised in the “Kasama Fix Mobile Retort” is another important advantage over the existing kiln technologies.
Further tests are on-going to improve its output for the making of BioChar and Activated Carbon. The “Kasama Fix Mobile Retort” can easily be benchmarked against technologies, like the Kontiki-Kiln, and the earth-mount kiln processes largely used elsewhere in Africa. Many African countries suffer from environmentally unsustainable charcoal making processes, leading to deforestation and health problems for charcoal makers, and thus require assistance in deploying improved technologies able to address also socio-economic and environmental considerations.