Dr. Joshua Olang’o Abuya, a Senior Lecturer of Supply Chain Management in the Department of Business Administration and Management Sciences has won a grant of Euros (£) 246,630, approximately KES 45,007,167.00 from United Kingdom Research Innovate.
The funding will go towards a two-year project that will be implemented collaboratively by Kibabii University, the University of Huddersfield (UK) and Carbon Footprint Limited, a local company located along Webuye-Kakamega Road (Kenya). The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project aims to Optimize Sugarcane Supply Chain Through Sustainable Bagasse Drier Solution in Sugarcane Waste Management by developing a sustainable off-grid drying technology for processing a highly toxic agricultural food waste product (Bagasse) so as to improve the livelihoods of the local rural communities through provision of affordable clean energy (Charcoal Briquettes) and access to pollution-free land for crop growing. Bagasse is an agricultural by-product derived from the sugarcane milling process. The current disposal method dumps bagasse-solid waste on to huge tracts of agricultural land, resulting into a toxic juice (leachate) which burns crops on farms and percolates into wells and streams, thus destroying the water sources. The two universities will build capacity of staff in prototype design, development, fabrication, installation and implementation of the bagasse drying technology. This will be beneficial in teaching students pursuing studies in Renewable Energy. According to Dr. Abuya, this project will also demonstrate to industries in Africa the value of linking up with universities to revitalizing supply chain operation and systems.
The project will be managed by Dr. Joshua Olang’o Abuya (Principal Investigator), supported by Prof. John Allport (University of Huddersfield -UK), Dr. Jonathan Mutonyi, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bennedict M. Mutua, Dr. Paul O. Obino, Dr. Patrick Owoche and Dr. John Makokha.
