Eco Briquettes

combatting climate change by preventing deforestation.

Since 2010 Sierra Leone has faced massive rates of deforestation with the country losing 40% of it's tree cover in 12 years, and most of these trees ar cut down for one reason only and that is to manufacture charcoal since 90% of Sierra Leonean homes uses charcoal to cook.

Because of deforestation terrible calamities and natural disasters have been hitting Sierra Leone with the first one happening in 2015. In 2015 massive floods destroyed hundreds of homes, lives and properties because there were no trees to absorb the water/rain. The next one was a mudslide which happened on the Freetown peninsula on the 14th of August 2017 and it took a heavier toll than the previous 2015 disaster. It buried thousands of people in their homes in the Middle of the night and this happened because the trees whose roots where holding the soil in that mountainous area had been cutdown so the the soil slid and buried people alive, other disasters like the 2019 and 2022 floods have been causing their own share of damages with people paying a heavier price each time for deforestation.

Since the main reason for deforestation in Sierra Leone is that people cut trees down to make charcoal for the general population to use in cooking, I have spent the last couple of years trying to find an environmental friendly solution to the problem at hand and I have come up with a way in which trees can be saved while also respecting people's culture of using charcoal in their cooking. I developed a formula of turning biomass waste to sustainable eco friendly charcoal thereby reducing the rates of deforestation and combating climate change. The end products also emits 50% less smoke than normal wood charcoal.

This solution is still in the idea phase but if started can have huge impact on several aspects of people's lives, The deforestation prevention aspect is just one good impact the solution can have on living things in the ecosystem be it humans, animals or plants. The fact that it emits 50% less smoke means that the methane and CO2 in the air can be reduced by 50% and several diseases caused by these gases can be prevented.

I have been preparing for a chance to launch my solution for over a year and half and I'm quite ready to undertake such a project if the finance is available. Taking on such a project can be so hectic but what's important is the outcome I hope achieve when it is all over

One thing I did was taking a door to door survey on the urgency of addressing this issue in their own perspective and as predicted people have been praying for such an issue to be addressed and that survey helped me.

one thing that makes my solution innovative is that it’s unique, it addresses an issue which is not very often addressed and it addresses it in such a way which is also a solution to another environmental problem.So the issue is to battle deforestation which is exactly what my solution is all about, but at the same time it recycles biomass waste while battling deforestation.

since my solution is still in the idea phase one of my goals for the next year is to accumulate the finances required for my to kick start my project.since I am from a very poor home and don’t posses the cash needed for such a project my hope lies in programmers like this one for funding to start implementing this idea and making the change I wish to see.

The machines I plan to buy if I receive any funding are made from recycled scrapped car parts and other vehicle parts which makes it hardware technological to some extent and it is a new implementation of motor technology to actually be sustainable.

The biggest barrier holding me back at this point in time is the problem of funding, I am aware of the amount of money needed to start such a project and I’m just a 17 years old boy with no money but only an idea.