Nairobi: In a modest school laboratory tucked away in rural Siaya County, a flicker of blue flame from a test tube changed the course of Richard Arua’s life. Then a chemistry teacher at Mudhiora Secondary School, Arua had spent years guiding students through science congress competitions, often taking them to national-level triumphs. But in 2016, one experiment would catapult him out of the classroom and into Kenya’s growing clean energy space.

According to Kenya News Agency, together with his students, Arua set out to tackle a problem plaguing the region: the invasive water hyacinth choking Lake Victoria, with a bold aim of extracting ethanol from the weed and seeing if it could burn. ‘As the water hyacinth continued to choke Lake Victoria, we asked ourselves if it could be harvested and converted into something useful. We did some experiments in the school laboratory and managed to extract drops of ethanol from the weed, which actually burnt,’ he recalls.

What began as a school project quickly impressed science congress judges and reached the national stage, earning recommendations for further refinement. But it also planted a seed in Arua, a vision of transforming waste into energy. When the National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND) issued a call for green innovations, Arua submitted his idea. It won him a place in a two-year incubation programme, during which he refined the concept into a viable product.

This marked the birth of Cist East Africa, a company now at the forefront of clean cooking fuel made from waste materials such as water hyacinth and sugarcane bagasse. Unlike traditional ethanol producers who rely on expensive and limited molasses, Arua’s process uses enzymes to break down cellulose into fermentable sugars, an approach both cost-effective and environmentally sound.

‘Being a new product, we didn’t know whether it would be accepted in the market. However, with technical support and market research, what started as small drops in a lab grew to 2,000 litres of ethanol,’ he says. To make the fuel market-ready, Arua also had to find compatible stoves. He imported the first models from Tanzania and the customer response was positive, encouraging him to take the next big step.

With continued support from NETFUND, Arua and his team built one of the country’s first small-scale distilleries, introducing triple distillation to achieve 99 per cent ethanol purity using molecular filtration. In 2020, he formally registered his company – Cist East Africa – and relocated operations from Sidindi-Yala to Kisumu. Today, the company produces 3,000 litres of ethanol daily, with plans to scale up to 5,000 litres.

A litre retails at Sh100, but through specially designed dispensers, customers can buy as little as Sh20 worth of ethanol, a game-changer for low-income households. The fuel is currently available in informal settlements such as Manyatta, Obunga and Nyalenda, and plans are underway to scale distribution across Kisumu County. Arua sees the dispensers as a critical innovation. ‘This model allows us to offer clean energy affordably and flexibly. It’s one of the most reliable cooking fuel solutions in the country today,’ he notes.

But his ambitions stretch far beyond cooking, with the company now testing ethanol for use in boda bodas and light vehicles, which could significantly lower fuel costs for informal transport operators. ‘We’ve already tested the first samples, and we are hopeful that by September, we shall go commercial,’ he reveals. To expand operations, the firm has already secured land at Rabuor in Kadibo Sub-County, and Arua is exploring a franchise model that would see accredited micro-distillers set up in rural and peri-urban areas.

‘Investing in large ethanol plants like what we have in sugar factories is no mean feat. Therefore, my goal is to work with small micro-distillers whom we shall accredit so as to scale up ethanol production,’ he says. Arua is also calling on the government to invest in policy frameworks and distribution networks for ethanol, similar to those established for kerosene. The latter, he says, is environmentally harmful and increasingly expensive, yet still more accessible.

‘Kerosene prices have tripled, partly to curb adulteration of petrol, but its distribution model is still unmatched. We need the same for ethanol if we’re to transition meaningfully to clean energy,’ he says. His company, he added, was also eyeing new income streams through converting production waste into animal feed, further minimising waste and boosting its bottom line. In the long run, Arua believes clean, decentralised energy is the future-and ethanol is poised to play a critical role.

‘We’re not just producing fuel. We’re transforming how energy is made, accessed, and consumed,’ he says.