Compact Syngas Solutions to embark on tea-as-biomass project in Kenya

Waste-to-energy company Compact Syngas Solutions has been awarded funding to drive industrial decarbonisation in the hard-to-abate Kenyan tea sector – in one of the first five projects in a new United Nations scheme.
Multi-million-pound funding has been awarded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Accelerate-to-Demonstrate (A2D) facility, with additional funding secured from the private sector.
The three-year project will see Compact Syngas Solutions build a 500kW MicroHub for a tea factory in Kenya in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Supivaa Advisory Group.
Kenya produces £1 billion of tea a year, with up to a quarter of it destined for British consumers.
But the industry is threatened by an unreliable and expensive electricity grid that causes producers to rely on diesel generators for power and wood for heat.
Rising fertiliser costs, declining soil fertility and intensifying droughts undermine farm yields and profitability. These pressures are further exacerbated by plummeting global tea prices.
CSS has developed an advanced gasification process that uses high carbon biomass, including tea prunings to generate a syngas – a mix of hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide and monoxide.
The syngas can be burned as a greener fuel, saving up to 2.8kg of carbon dioxide per litre of diesel, and up to 1.98 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of fuelwood.
Carbonised biomass – biochar – produced in the gasifier offers various benefits for tea producers. When applied to farmland it increases productivity per unit fertiliser and locks away carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing the climate footprint of tea as well as generating tradable emissions credits.
Each 500kWh plant will create jobs for up to ten skilled technical and operational workers with an extra ten workers in fabrication and support. Some 300 jobs should be created in Kenya within the first five years.
The project includes digital technology that monitors the biomass supply chain and carbon footprint to maximise environmental sustainability, workforce and social impacts. The digital tool will ensure the generator keeps running while synchronising with other energy sources and heat recovery for the factory’s boiler.
Supivaa-Co-REGEN will arrange site visits, engage the tea value chain, monitor and evaluate the financial and environmental impact, and ensure the pilot is gender-intentional.
Only 7% of Kenya’s engineers are currently women, and the consortium plans to build a pipeline of female gasification technicians and operators.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture will manage the biomass supply chain and biochar application, ensure strict environmental and social safeguards are implemented, and advise on carbon credit registration.
By demonstrating gasifier performance in a fully operational tea factory, optimising local biomass supply and biochar recirculation, the project will catalyse industry-wide adoption.
Once the project has proved its success in Kenya, it will expand to Malawi, Uganda and South Africa, before spreading across the world.
Paul Willacy, CEO of Compact Syngas Solutions, said: “This United Nations funding is an incredible boost for us, and will be a game-changer for the Kenyan tea industry that produces so much of the tea we drink.
“The Kenya tea industry is under threat from an unreliable and expensive power supply, and our MicroHub will show an easy way for factories to decarbonise.
“We’re going to provide energy security to the factories that process our tea, while reducing emissions, improving crop yields and bringing jobs to the country.
“We’re hugely excited about the impact this could have on the tea industry in Kenya and worldwide.”
Hugo Douglas-Dufresne, Technical Director of Browns Plantations Kenya, said: "We are excited to explore the technical and commercial viability for the first Compact Syngas Solutions gasification plant. If we are convinced that the benefits are shown to be positive for BPK and the wider tea industry, we would host the plant in one of our factories in Kericho district.
“At Browns Plantations, we are committed to innovation and environmental stewardship, and this partnership reinforces our ambition to reduce carbon emissions from our tea business. We are keen to improve energy reliability, and benefit from the application of biochar in our tea fields, thus potentially reducing our fertiliser requirements. and setting a precedent for the wider tea sector."