
Screenshot of charcoal burning in Mozambique. Source: Vimeo.
CleanStar Mozambique aims to provide a cleaner alternative to meeting the demands for food and cooking fuel in Africa, according to its mission statement. The facility will supply ethanol-based cooking fuel — a cleaner, faster, and safer energy source — to Maputo, Mozambique. The facility opened in May.
Cassava is found in most backyards within Mozambique, making it a great alternative to charcoal. CleanStar Mozambique’s mission is to engage farmers in a sustainable, restorative system in Maputo. The biofuel plant manufactures liquid fuel that is then transported to cities and sold in bottles. Ethanol production is currently at 2 million liters annually, and CleanStar Mozambique believes this will increase greatly over the next few years.

Maputo. Source: Wikimedia.
“This facility produces clean cooking fuel in a way that generates a reliable new income stream for local farmers, while ensuring that a continuous and affordable fuel supply reaches urban households. Our private-sector led approach in Mozambique provides an encouraging example for other resource-constrained African countries that are struggling to respond to rising food and energy prices, growing cities, and shrinking forests.”
The replacement of charcoal with alternative cooking fuel is vital for Mozambique. Currently, 80 percent of Mozambique’s population uses charcoal, even though it creates adverse health effects, is harmful to the environment, and extremely costly. Over the past several years, alternative cooking fuel has become even more attractive due to the inflation of charcoal prices. A Maputo family spends about $30 per month on charcoal alone, which is the price of an entire ethanol cook stove, according to The New York Times.

Cassava leaves. Source: Neil Palmer, CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture.
Earlier this year, CleanStar Mozambique began selling ethanol cooking stoves in Maputo. Made by the Swedish company Dometic, the stoves were first used on a larger scale in Ethiopia. CleanStar plans on monitoring the stoves over time to make an assessment of how much carbon is replaced by this sustainable method. This information will be used to acquire “carbon credits” which will then be traded to polluting countries to offset their greenhouse gas emission levels. Consequently, the Bank of America Merill Lynch has invested $4 million dollars in the project in the hopes that they will be able to acquire the carbon credits.
Founded in 2010 by Novozymes and CleanStar Ventures, CleanStar Mozambique has been able to use the urban demand for food and subsequently cooking fuel to encourage sustainable development within Mozambique. CleanStar Mozambique has five goals: Protect forests, produce food, deliver energy, enrich lives through community engagement, and reduce air pollution.