The tea manufacturing industry in Kenya is quickly innovating new technologies for energy conservation and efficiency measures as the effects of climate change manifest.
Tea Machinery and Engineering Company (TEMEC) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kenya Tea Development Agency Holding (KTDA(H) Ltd, said the move is aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change.
TEMEC General Manager, Michael Cherutich said in-house developed machinery such as driers, pre-sorters, high-efficiency withering fans, winnowers, ID fans, boiler air pre-heater and log splitters integrate energy-efficient systems that contribute to energy conservation.
He cited the Fluid Bed Drier(FBD) that is incorporated with a heat recovery system to maximize energy while at the same time minimising heat losses, resulting in the use of less firewood at the boilers.
The GM explained that the FBD’s automated heated screw addresses the labour component in running the unit and makes use of flush steam to conserve energy.
“This is a direct saving on firewood and reduced deforestation,” said Cherutich adding that TEMEC, the engineering arm of Kenya Tea Development Agency offers value addition to the green leaf in KTDA and other tea factories.
"As a strategic Engineering arm of KTDA, TEMEC performs its role of standardising quality of machinery services and products while moderating prices to the benefit of the tea farmer and the tea subsector in general,” he added.
Cherutich said the boiler air pre-heater unit utilizes flue gases which could have otherwise been lost to the atmosphere to pre-heat the combustion air fed into the boiler thus improving boiler efficiency and reducing the firewood consumption.
He added that the high-efficiency withering fans were low-power consumers and efficient, leading to reduced time to achieve withers of green leaf and reduced emissions of Green household gases across all machinery applications in the factory.
On log/wood splitters, Cherutich said the machine splits wood logs without loss of material.
“This maximises burning efficiency with the resultant reduction in firewood consumption and by extension, reduced deforestation,” he said.
He further revealed that TEMEC has entered into a partnership with companies specialising in solar technology to fabricate structural support as part of the Green Energy Initiatives.
“The focus here being to encourage the use of renewable energy in the tea processing among other uses,” he clarified.
Cherutich revealed that TEMEC’s considerations to optimise capacity to increase throughput which will in turn reduce process time to ensure energy conservation and reduced cost.
“TEMEC continues to play an indirect, salient but critical role in Climate change Mitigation that has a backward linkage to the conservation of trees in most of its operations,” added Cherutich.
He promised that the company would play a more subtle role in partnership with other tea and non-tea companies and agencies in the areas of energy, food security and measures geared towards mitigation of climate change.
The General Manager said TEMEC, continued to support smallholder tea farmers through the mechanisation of tea plucking, supplying the machines and providing training for the battery-operated plucking machines.
“The machines are environmentally friendly and help the farmers in the objective of managing costs of production while maintaining the quality of tea,” he said.
KTDA Chief Executive Officer, Wilson Muthaura said he recently met a team from the Engineers Board of Kenya with whom they exchanged valuable insights and explored opportunities for collaboration in areas that are integral to the general practices of engineering.
Muthaura pointed out that KTDA has made remarkable gains in automating several processes and systems including the growers’ payments system (SAP) to improve efficiency and cut costs to enhance returns to the 700, 000 small-holder tea farmers under KTDA-managed factories.
He maintained the agency's commitment to helping tea farmers increase their earnings while improving the quality of tea produced in KTDA-managed tea factories through research and innovation.
