In 1982, the business ventured into the world of cut flowers and was one of the first on Lake Naivasha to do so. Such was the success that Oserian developed an expansive floricultural business which became pivotal to Kenya’s floricultural growth over three decades paving way for today’s highly successful cut flower industry. In 2021 the flower farm was divested to Bohemian Flowers to take forward the legacy.
Local energy from local waste
The farm has long been involved in sustainability, boasting a large solar farm, geothermal wells and vermiculture farm. Now the farm plays host to a waste-to-energy project funded by Innovate UK, in partnership with QUBE Renewables, Grants Biotech and the University of South Wales. The project uses new dry digestion technology, batchQUBE, to process high cellulose flower waste and produce renewable energy in the form of biogas which will be used for cooking in the flower farm’s canteen.
Filter media for anaerobic dry digester
The concept behind the new plant was aided by research carried out by the University of South Wales, the UK’s centre of excellence for anaerobic digestion. The project was constructed by QUBE Renewables and shipped to Kenya where it was installed by Grants Biotech. It consists of ten dry digesters, a concept that was proven following a dryQUBE project in the Philippines. The aim is to process ligneous wastes that need long retention times. These containerised dry digesters are followed by the high-rate digester, where conditions are optimised for methanogenesis, the stage of anaerobic digestion in which the bacteria produce the most amount of useful biogas. In this reactor, the bacteria grow on the surface of Warden Biomedia’s Biofil 135.
“Warden’s Biofil 135 is an excellent media for our high-rate digester. We have 20m³ of Biofil 135 in the unit which provides 135m² of surface area per m³ and it’s made from recycled polypropylene which is very much in line with our philosophy of sustainability”
David Payne, Head of Engineering at QUBE.
Building a sustainable future
QUBE Renewables have successfully designed, built and deployed numerous small-scale, eco-friendly biogas energy systems around the world. Mark Barrett, Managing Director at Warden Biomedia says “We are proud to be involved in sustainability projects and our eco-friendly bio-filters are perfect for the job. We are glad to be doing our part alongside companies like QUBE Renewables and their clients as we work towards a carbon-neutral future.”
