Life Cycle Costing of Alternative Value Chains of Biomass Energy for Cooking in Kenya and Tanzania

Table 2

Biomass energy value chains, life cycle stages, and assumptions for Kitui (KI), Kenya, and Moshi (MO), Tanzania. Data sources: survey by authors and literature.

Value chains		Unimproved firewood	Improved firewood	Unimproved charcoal	Improved charcoal	Biogas	Jatropha oil, manual press	Jatropha oil, diesel press	Briquettes, manual press	Briquettes, diesel press
Life Cycle Stages
Feedstock collection	Feedstock & way of collection	Manual harvesting of wood		Manual harvesting of wood		Cow dung, manually collected	Jatropha seeds from hedge, manually harvested		KI: maize cobs. used after removal of the grains; MO: rice husks, manually collected from rice mills
	Labour cost^2 for	Collection of one headload of firewood		Felling and chopping of wood		Collection of cow dung	Collection of seeds		Collecting the respective crop residues
	Government royalty fees^3	KI: Does not apply therefore not included; MO: Included for firewood
Feedstock processing	Technology; Used	None		Basic earth kiln (BEK)	Improved basic earth kiln (IBEK)	KI: Plastic digester; MO: VACVINA bio-digesters	Manual oil press	Diesel-powered oil press	Manual briquette press	Diesel-powered briquette press
	Lifespan (years)					Plastic digester-5 years; VACVINA bio-digester- 15 years	10 years when working 8 hours per day
	Technology cost	None			Cost of selected technologies
	Labour cost based on time used	None		To prepare feedstock until the removal of charcoal from kiln		To prepare feedstock and feed into digester	To press the oil using the respective presses.		To make the briquettes using the respective presses
	Government royalty fees^3			MO: Included for charcoal
	Running fuel cost						Cost of diesel used to run the diesel powered presses
Use	Cooking stove efficiency	Three-stones fire place 12.5% [42–44]	Maendeleo: 18% [45]^1; Envirofit: 29.7% [46]; Rocket: 28%[47, 48]; Kuni chache:24%^1; Okoa: 40% [49]	Unimproved charcoal stove: 24% [43].	Kenya Ceramic Jiko (KCJ): 32%[43]; Sazawa: 44% [50]	Biogas burner: 55% [51]	Jatropha oil stove: 39.5% [52]		Briquette stove: 32% (adopted from KCJ)
	Use cost	Cost of selected stoves in Kitui and Moshi
	Lifespan (years)	one year (where clay bricks are used, as is the practice)	Maendeleo: 4.5^1; Envirofit: 5.5^1; Rocket: 5^1; Kuni Chache: 2^1; Okoa: 8^1	Unimproved charcoal stove: 1.5^1	Kenya Ceramic Jiko and Sazawa charcoal stove: 3^1	Biogas burner: 10^1	Jatropha oil stove: 25^1		Briquette stove: 3^1

Experts’ knowledge by Practical Action, Kenya (PA), and TaTEDO which are organizations addressing renewable energy issues in Kenya and Tanzania, respectively.
²Labour costs are based on Government wage rates in the agricultural sector in Kenya and Tanzania, i.e., 228.30 Ksh/day (2.24 USD) and 3846.50Tsh /day (1.78 USD) [53, 54].
³In Tanzania, a government royalty fee of 6,500 Tsh (2.99 US) for firewood by quantity obtained from natural forests per stacked m³ from dead branches and off cuts and from planted standing tree. The royalty fees for a 50 kg bag of charcoal are 12,500Tsh (5.77US) [55]