Watch How a Kenyan Teen Has Invented A Clean Energy Product From Agricultural Waste [Video]

His story needs to be told over and over again. And that is why we are telling it here on Anonymous Headquarters. In Africa, where governments and policy makers face the major challenge of sourcing and distributing energy, many people resort to logging to source their power. To do this, the people burn charcoal to use as a source of power, mostly in household cooking.

Those who will not use the charcoal, will use the dry trees to produce a direct naked fire for cooking and other purposes. Although this method is used by many Africans, especially those in the rural areas, it is incredibly risky.

Apart from the health risks that the charcoal brings to its users, many trees are destroyed as a result of logging. This loss of trees has a dramatic effect on the local environment.

However, for the people of Africa, destroying the environment in order to source power is gradually becoming a thing of the past. In Kenya, a country in East Africa, a teen has invented a product called charcoal briquettes, which is used to replace conventional charcoal for energy purposes.

The teen- Tom Osborn, is said to have already been recognized as one of the world’s top entrepreneurs. His company, GreenChar, is a clean energy start-up that produces the charcoal briquettes for cooking purposes. These products are both healthier and more long lasting to use.

He produces his charcoal briquettes from recycled agricultural waste such as sugarcane. Thorough studies, evidence has shown that his product emits 90% less smoke, and has 60% more energy than the conventional charcoal used for cooking.

According to local media reports in Kenya, his company is gaining grounds because of its innovation and environmentally friendly nature.

According to Tom, he was inspired to start the company after he became concerned for the health of his community, particularly his mom. Growing up in Awendo, a small town in Kenya, he said he watched how women in the community would cook meals for their families on charcoal-fueled cook stoves. And as a young child, it was his duty to light the cook stove for his mother every day for lunch.

But in high school, he said he discovered something that worried him. All Africa quoted him as saying, “I randomly came across a report saying smoke from firewood and charcoal killed more people than AIDS, Malaria and TB combined. That really shocked me and made me start thinking of my mom, and that maybe she was slowly dying from all the times she had cooked for us. And I felt guilty because I was one of the people she was cooking for. So I wanted to try to help her.”

He said he then started researching online and came across students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who were testing the potential of converting agricultural waste into charcoal.

Tom said he got in touch with them, and found out how to produce the healthier charcoal briquettes that his company-GreenChar now produces on the market.

Tom said that the company’s  success was not solely centered around the good idea. Tom had to think strategically to overcome a number of crucial challenges. For starters, he needed to convince consumers to change the way they had always cooked.

“Initially we had to give free samples, because it is a big thing in Kenya that people don’t like to change,” he said.

The free samples allowed him to educate consumers on the benefits of using his eco-friendly charcoal briquettes. When Tom got some money, he re-invested it into the company and hired more staff.

The revenue generated from this was enough to allow GreenChar to scale up production to 150kgs a day; however, this later proved to not be enough.

Currently, his company is partnering with Envirofit, a global manufacturer of cook stoves that ensure optimum efficiency of his eco-friendly charcoal briquettes. Tom has brought a great change to his country and his success story is spreading.

The famous Forbes Magazine named Tom one of the global‘s 30 under 30′ social entrepreneurs. In 2014, he was selected as a 2014 Anzisha Fellow, winning US$10,000 from Donors’ Circle at the Anzisha Prize Gala Awards. He was also chosen as a global Echoing Green Fellow (EGF) for 2014, which comes with two years of funding, totaling $80,000. He is the youngest recipient to receive the fellowship in the EGF’s 27-year-history.

Using funds he received from EGF last year, GreenChar bought two acres of land and started building its own manufacturing plant. The factory was completed in November, 2014. The company now produces 2,000kgs of briquettes a day, and has the capacity to increase this to 3,000kgs.

The company has also set up a research and development team of university students to design GreenChar’s own cook stoves.

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