The Socioeconomic Feasibility for Production of Briquettes from Agroforestry Waste: A case study in the City of Chókwè

Abstract

The current production of charcoal is one of the leading causes of deforestation in Mozambique. Given this situation, renewable energies are seen as an alternative to reduce the pressure that forests have been suffering. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the socioeconomic feasibility of deploying a briquette factory to be fed by agroforestry residues in the city of Chókwè.  The study was conducted based on three possible scenarios of the briquettes machine energy use - Scenario 1 with total dependence on the national power grid; Scenario 2 with an On-grid system; and Scenario 3 with an Off-grid system. Therefore, a study was carried out to quantify the leading indicators of the economic viability of projects, such as the Net Present Value (NPV), Payback, and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Additionally, a sensitivity analysis of NPV was also carried out considering the Scenario 2 of energy consumption.  The results show that producing briquettes from agroforestry waste could be a legitimate alternative to minimize the deforestation rate. The proposed scenarios are economically feasible and present an estimated time of capital recovery of around three years with the IRR around 40%. The social assessment revealed that 98% of the people in the city of Chókwè are unaware of the existence of charcoal briquette, but they are willing to use it.