Trees fell, emissions soared and energy bills skyrocketed. Meanwhile, millions of tonnes of agricultural waste lie unused, undervalued and rotting. Now, with energy costs rising and industries facing mounting pressure to adopt greener practices, one company is offering a cleaner, smarter alternative: transforming agricultural waste into industrial fuel. Lean Energy Solutions, founded by Tembhekar Dinesh Krishnarao, is revolutionising how industries approach energy by utilising biomass briquettes. “I resigned from a promising career at the United Nations Development Programme in Tanzania and launched my consultancy focused on Kaizen and energy management,” he recalls.
That consultancy evolved into Lean Energy Solutions, entirely funded through his personal savings. As he worked with various manufacturing clients, conducting energy audits, he realised that industries needed cleaner, more affordable alternatives to fossil fuels. His answer lay in converting Kenya’s vast agricultural waste into a usable, high-energy industrial fuel. “The audit findings revealed that manufacturing companies could significantly cut their energy costs while reducing their carbon footprint by shifting to cleaner alternatives,” he says, adding that this insight led to the company’s decision to venture into briquette manufacturing.
The company’s flagship product, Lean Briqs, is a clean-energy alternative made by converting loose agricultural biomass such as coffee husks, maize cobs, sugarcane bagasse, and sawdust into compact, high-density, low-volume lumps through mechanical compression.
This serves as a direct substitute for firewood, coal and fossil fuels such as heavy furnace oil and industrial diesel, offering an eco-friendly and cost-effective solution for thermal energy needs in industrial boilers and brick kilns. Mr Dinesh explains that, as one of the first briquette manufacturers in Kenya, the biggest challenge was market penetration. At the time, most industrial boilers were designed to run on fossil fuels, making the switch to biomass briquettes a tough sell.To overcome this challenge the company introduced a boiler conversion model that opened up the market.
He adds that the company handles the entire process—procurement, installation of a Lean Briq-fired furnace or boiler, supplying the briquettes, operating the equipment, and delivering steam directly to the client on a Pay-As-You-Go model.
Under this model, clients only pay for the steam they consume, at a discounted rate, without incurring any capital expenditure. This flexible, partnership-driven approach has attracted a growing number of institutional and industrial clients seeking cleaner, cheaper and more sustainable energy solutions. Leveraging his background in mechanical engineering, Mr Dinesh trained an in-house team to manage the full biomass lifecycle, from pre-processing and compression to combustion.
Converting a traditional fossil-fuel-fired boiler to use Lean Briqs involves several technical and operational considerations. “Initially, convincing clients to make the switch was a major hurdle, given their reliance on conventional fuels.
But as the economic and environmental advantages such as reduced energy costs, lower carbon emissions, and improved sustainability, became evident, adoption steadily increased,” he notes. Today, with advancements in, the transition process is far more streamlined and widely accepted. What sets Lean Briqs apart is their high calorific value and affordability. “Compared to firewood, our briquettes deliver more energy. And unlike fossil fuels, they emit significantly less carbon,” he notes.
Despite challenges such as sourcing wet biomass, which requires extensive sun drying before use, the product remains competitively priced at around Sh15,000 per tonne. Starting with a team of just five in 2007, the firm now employs 444 people.
The company runs two manufacturing plants and manages 20 biomass boiler sites-18 in Kenya and two in Tanzania.Each month, the firm processes between 3,000 and 5,000 tonnes of biomass, producing around 15,000 tonnes of briquettes annually. “We’ve built an ecosystem by partnering with wood processors, coffee mills, sugar milling companies, and independent suppliers-over 80 in total, many of them women,” he says. Once received, the typically wet biomass is sun-dried, compressed and prepared for delivery to clients countrywide. Their core offerings include the production of non-carbonised, high-density briquettes made from agricultural waste, providing a low-emission alternative to traditional fuels.
It also offers boiler conversion services, where it installs and operates biomass-fired boilers at no upfront cost to clients, who only pay for the steam they consume, often at significantly reduced rates.
They also conduct comprehensive energy audits, helping businesses identify cleaner and more cost-effective power sources. Lean Briq-fired boilers are imported and installed with precision, undergoing rigorous testing before deployment. To ensure peak performance and reliability, each system undergoes weekly autonomous maintenance checks and annual safety audits. Installing a biomass boiler can cost between $150,000 and $300,000, a cost that Lean Energy Solutions fully absorbs under its steam provision contracts. While the upfront investment may appear high, it is gradually recovered through structured payments built into the long-term service agreements. “Our model aligns with the circular economy by reusing agricultural waste as fuel and repurposing the ash produced during combustion for fertiliser production,” he says.
Scholarship programme
Mr Dinesh says that Lean Energy’s impact extends beyond energy. For every one-tonne per-hour boiler installed, the firm sponsors the education of a needy student from secondary school through to tertiary level. As of 2025, 52 students are benefiting from its scholarship programme. The company’s growth has been significantly accelerated by the Kenya Climate Innovation Centre (KCIC), particularly through its SWIFT programme. “Through the KCIC SWIFT programme, we have expanded our capacity to handle agricultural waste more efficiently.”
Beyond funding, KCIC has provided valuable technical support, mentorship, and networking opportunities “We are planning regional expansion, starting with Uganda, and developing new technologies such as a biomass-powered hot air generator and a vapour absorption chiller—innovations that will elevate our clean energy solutions,” he concludes.
