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EMAC CONSULTANTS LTD

P.O. Box 28271 – 00200, Nairobi. Cell: +254 722929207,

BIO-ETHANOL COOKERS (ECOK STOVES)

Prepared by Shadrack Kioko-Lead Consultant

+254722929207

KENYA BIO-ETHANOL COOKERS PROJECT

INTRODUCTION

Use of Ethanol as a Cooking Fuel is a proven alternative to charcoal and kerosene, enabling a modern, safe and affordable cooking experience for low-income households and at the same time, delivering significant positive social and environmental impacts to Kenya.

Following a low-tech proof-of-concept that proved high consumer demand for ethanol cooking, ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Networks’ founders began 5 years of Research & Development into developing technologies that would lower the consumer price of this cooking fuel. This included successfully reimagining the distribution chain to reduce prices for consumers, and in 2019, ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel was born and launched in Nairobi, Kenya,

ABOUT ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES FUEL:

ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel is liquid bioethanol produced plentifully by the East African sugar industry and is made available through a dense network of 700 Clean Fuel ATMs called “ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Points” available in shops across Nairobi Metropolitan Area – that is, Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado Counties. Bioethanol is purchased through ECOK BIO-ETHANOL ’s partnership with Fuel Energy suppliers in Kenya, The fuel is delivered to the Fuel stations and then ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES branded “micro tankers” (that is, customized small fuel trucks) deliver the fuel to the ATMs across the city, creating a seamless and cost-effective delivery experience which uses existing infrastructure to ensure cost savings are passed onto the consumer.

DEMAND

The demand of Ethanol cooking fuel is still at a nascent stage in Kenya. However, urban households are rapidly shifting their primary cooking fuels from kerosene and charcoal to cleaner fuels like liquid petroleum gas (LPG). In contrast, rural households continue to primarily use firewood. With this trend towards cleaner fuels, demand for ethanol as cooking fuel is projected to increase drastically over 10 years. Affordability and availability, enabled by sufficient domestic production and supply chain development, as well as greater awareness of the health and environmental benefits of ethanol can drive the demand. This research estimates the demand for Ethanol Cooking Fuel (ECF) in Kenya over a ten-year period, based on a projection model that considers six drivers: 1) demographic trends 2) current fuel use 3) affordability 4) availability 5) preference 6) stacking1. Total demand for ethanol across 3 scenarios, discounted for the estimated stacking of other fuels, was high.

The creation of a local ECF industry has the potential to create new opportunities across the value chain. It will also generate positive environmental and health impacts at both the individual and national levels. It should also be noted that there are potential social and environmental risks associated with ethanol production including potential risks associated with land use displacement. These risks will need to be assessed at the planning stage together with a defined and agreed set of safeguards. This report estimates the potential impact of households switching to ECF on jobs, income, health, and the environment. The findings are summarized below:

Table 1: Summary of impact findings Employment and earnings impact

• Jobs: Up to 370,000 jobs (with the majority in feedstock production)

• New income generated: Up to KES 51 billion, with additional income of up to KES 180,000 per

year for smallholder farmers Environment impact

• Deforestation averted: Up to 54 million trees saved

• GHG emissions: Up to 13.5 billion kgs of C02 equivalent saved 11 Health impact

• Deaths averted: ~3,700 deaths could be averted

• Disability-adjusted Life Years (DALYs) averted: Up to 507,000 DALYs

• Economic value of deaths averted and DALYs saved: ~KES 372

Contextual Analysis

Customers switching to ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES save 50% versus charcoal and 10% versus kerosene and can purchase quantities as low as KES 30/- at time, matching their preference for “small and often” purchase behaviour.

In addition, ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel cooking kit is purchased when it is already assembled making it ready for use upon purchase. In the long run, ECOK BIOETHANOL STOVES Fuel is cheaper than Charcoal by 50% and is conveniently available in neighborhoods across the Greater Nairobi Area.

ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel produces NO harmful fumes or soot when cooking, thus reducing exposure to indoor pollution negatively impacting the human

HOW IT WORKS:

The ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES package contains a light blue and modern two-burner Cooker and one refillable ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel canister. To make the deal sweeter, the first 2 fuel refills are FREE, courtesy of Emac Consultants Ltd. The ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES ATM provides a cashless, self-service experience as each consumer creates an account into which they load balance via MPESA (Mobile Money Platform) and transact at their local ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Point seamlessly. The ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel is a purplecoloured ethanol liquid that is securely stored in the canister and can only be dispensed

when mounted on the ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Cooker.

WHAT NEXT FOR ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES NETWORKS?

ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Networks plans to expand across Kenya. Additionally, they are eyeing other markets across Africa who are keen to bring ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES’s solution to their country through licensing – but Kenya is the one leading the way!

To support the Ministry of Energy in Kenya, whose goal is for universal access to clean fuel in Kenya by 2028, ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Networks’ immediate focus is to make their technologies affordable thus ensuring Kenyans across the nation can afford to purchase and use the ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Cooker daily.

PROOF OF CONCEPT

ECOK Bio-Ethanol Stoves Networks commercially soft-launched its technology suite in Nairobi in mid-2017. ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES’s first offering to mass-market consumers and local retailers is a liquid ethanol cooking fuel solution. ECOK BIOETHANOL STOVES deploys networks of “ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES point” Fuel ATMs inside local shops, and customers dock their Smart Cook fuel canisters with the ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES points in order to buy fuel.

Consumers then return home to dock their canisters with ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES’s Smart Cook ethanol stove. ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES points are refilled by ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES’s fuel partner, Vivo Energy Kenya, and ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES’s Cloud Software suite controls the flow of fuel, information and payments through the last mile. Customers using Smart Cook are able to have a clean, modern, affordable and safe cooking experience.

ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES’s commercial Soft Launch involved deploying ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES points in 12 neighborhoods across Nairobi, and releasing just 1,000 stoves to customers in those neighborhoods. The purpose of the Soft Launch was to demonstrate the technology working at a reasonable scale, to run a competitive process for securing a wholesale fuel supply partner, and to build up the pipeline of shopkeepers who seek to partner with ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES for its commercial Hard Launch in 2019.

OUR PROJECT

Our aim is to fabricate and manufacture ethanol cook stoves and ethanol dispensing machines similar to koko Network cookers but better. The project is very viable going by the above pilot and proof of concept in that they were able to pilot its sixth prototype of the cook stoves which was much safer than the earlier versions and dispense various ethanol dispensers. A total of 30 stoves and canisters were distributed in the target area during the period. We intend to deploy the same kind of network and infrastructure in most of African Countries.

We have been able to gain deep insight into customer behavior across a wide variety of Nairobi neighborhoods, whilst building the pipeline of shopkeepers ahead of the commercial Hard Launch. This innovation has helped to mitigate climate change through reduced emission of greenhouse gases and reduced deforestation. Ethanol has no emissions thus it is a fuel that is able to mitigate carbon emissions. With the planned increase of fuel costs in Kenya, ethanol may just be the solution especially for the low income households that still rely on paraffin for lighting and cooking.

ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES networks introduce alternative cooking fuel powered by IoT technology

Following a successful pilot project in Kenya, in which ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Networks secured over 1000 customers in Nairobi and its environs, the company officially launched its ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel, a clean, safe and affordable liquid ethanol cooking fuel solution, that is dispensed from “ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES point” Smart Fuel ATMs located in 700 shops across the city.

The launch was graced by Dr. Eng. Joseph Njoroge, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, who highlighted the important role such solutions play in supporting the Government of Kenya’s policy objective of 100% clean cooking fuel in Kenyan households, to transition away from polluting and harmful fuels such as charcoal and kerosene.

ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Fuel is a fantastic alternative solution to charcoal and paraffin, which are unsafe and used extensively by Kenyans. Traditional wood, charcoal and kerosene fuels are the leading cause of Indoor Air Pollution in Kenya, claiming more than 21,000 lives every year. This translates to more than 400 every week, many of whom are children under the age of 5 and places a big strain on our health system. At the same time, deforestation from unsustainable charcoal practices

drive changes in our rainfall patterns, negatively impacting our agricultural yields. By responsibly managing the transition from charcoal, we can improve our food security,” said the PS.

The ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES fuel business model

Dr. Eng. Joseph Njoroge, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Energy cooking with the 2-burner ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Cooker.

The Smart Cook kit which includes a 2-burner ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES Cooker and the smart canisters, which retails for ksh 6,999, an amount which customers can pay in deposits and collect upon completion. Bright Andile says that the target market for the product is anyone and everyone looking for an alternative and cleaner fuel than the likes of Charcoal and Kerosene.

When it comes to competing with the LPG, which is a common fuel source in Nairobi, ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES has the advantage of appealing to the Kadogo market as you can refill your smart canister for as little as ksh.35 to as much as Ksh.200 (which completely fills up the canister, and could last for a week when being used onsistently).

With LPG, one purchases a cylinder according to the size they require (with a 5kg gas cylinder retailing at around Ksh.3,600) and a refill, which costs around the range of ksh850- 1000, can take a consistent user around one month to finish.

ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES there is the added bonus of safety thanks to their use of IoT technology and the convenience in refiling as their agent network extends across Greater Nairobi, from Thika to Kitengela, Kiserian to Limuru, and everywhere inbetween, providing access to ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES points within a shortwalk of their customers.

All transactions at the ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES point are cashless, using MPESA. The machine has a more than 200-litre fuel capacity and communicates constantly with ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES’s command centre and fuel wholesale partner, enabling seamless refilling when required,” assured Bright Andile. As anadded bonus we provide video content for our customers as they refill their ECOK BIOETHANOL STOVES Fuel.” Bright Andile concluded.

Project idea

Kenyan cooking start-up uses tech to cut costs and save lives Distribution system fits in with

households’ ‘small and often’ spending pattern A customer in Nairobi tops-up on clean fuel at a

'ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES point' Fuel ATM. There are 700 ECOK BIO-ETHANOL STOVES

Agents across the city. (handout) Recipe for success: ethanol is said to be far safer than charcoal

or paraffin Kenyan cooking start-up uses tech to cut costs and save lives on twitter (opens in a

new window) Kenyan cooking start-up uses tech to cut costs and save lives on Facebook (opens

in a new window) Kenyan cooking start-up uses tech to cut costs and save lives on LinkedIn

(opens in a new window) current progress 41% Tom Wilson in Nairobi November 1 2019 1 Print

this page Receive free Kenya updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the

latest Kenya news every morning. In the corner of Dafne Okech’s tiny general store in Kayole, a

working-class district of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, a tall and futuristic blue vending machine looms

over tightly packed rows of tinned fruit and washing powder. Half way up, a 14-inch touchscreen

scrolls video adverts, while the device pumps out an in-store radio programme. Designed and

built by ECOK Bio-Ethanol Stoves Networks, an energy start-up, the machine dispenses ethanol

and is part of the company’s solution to a perennial problem in African cities: how to get cheap,

safe fuel into homes to use for cooking. The ECOK Bio-Ethanol Stoves Point is the first product

in what the company says will be a suite of technology-backed services to improve life in the

continent’s metropolises. Across Africa, where electricity connections are patchy and mains gas

non-existent, the average urban household spends $20 a month on cooking fuel. The market is

worth $40bn, ECOK Bio-Ethanol Stoves says. It is dominated by charcoal and paraffin, both of

which give off fumes and soot that contribute to the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands

of people a year. Ethanol, made from corn or sugarcane, is far safer but so far has been hard to

package and transport. Mr. Shadrack Kioko, chief executive and co-founder of ECOK Bio-Ethanol

Stoves, set out to solve the problem five years ago. After a pilot project in Mozambique, he

launched his business in Kenya this year. “Ethanol cooking is not new but people have used a

bottling approach, which is very expensive,” says Mr Shadrack Kioko, giving a tour of ECOK Bio-

Ethanol Stoves’s factory in Nairobi. Instead of distributing bottles, ECOK Bio-Ethanol Stoves has

700 vending machines in corner stores, such as Ms Okech’s Eagle Services. Customers draw the

fuel into reusable ECOK Bio-Ethanol Stoves-branded fuel bottles and once at home they connect

the bottles to ECOK Bio-Ethanol Stoves-designed twin-hob stoves, which have an airlock to limit

fumes and prevent spillage.