Green Charcoal: Could Research at Gulu University Ignite a Biomass Energy Revolution in Uganda?

On a quiet Friday evening in March, Miriam Ajak, 23, stoops over the traditional three-stone stove in front of her hut in Lawiyeadul village, Laliya Parish, on the outskirts of Gulu City in northern Uganda, to prepare dinner for her extended family. As she pushes in the firewood, smoke slowly rises above the sooty stones and pans to shroud her entire body. Some of it enters her eyes. She grimaces in pain, picks up a makeshift fun and flaps it up and down to add more pressure to the fire. But the wood can hardly burn because it is highly moist. The more smoke it spews, the more she breathers into her lungs.

Circular economy: Breaking the plastic waves

You’ve heard it all before: the state of our plastic waste crisis is dire. And it’s true. Around 13 million tonnes of plastic leaks into the ocean annually, and this is just expected to increase unless we act now. Of all of the plastic waste generated, the majority is plastic packaging, and constitutes 60% of the coastal waste

Thabit Jacob: Winners and losers in the green energy transition

Achieving UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) requires careful attention to the risk of potential contradictions between the individual goals. For instance, how do we make energy both clean, affordable and accessible? Tanzanian Doctoral researcher Thabit Jacob’s scholarly contribution highlights the complexities of the global green energy transition. Especially the challenges in the sub-Saharan countries where most people are living without electricity.

“In Africa millions of people lack access to stable electricity”. Musa Bishir is on the quest for a change

During the ELLS Student Conference 2019, in Uppsala, I had the opportunity to attend Musa Bishir’s presentation about his Ph.D. research project on microbial fuel cells. After his presentation, I asked him if he was available to have a talk about his background and interests. We sat in the library in the Ultuna campus of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), which hosted ELLS 2019.