Economic feasibility of bagasse charcoal in Haiti

Abstract

The economics of implementing bagasse-based charcoal manufacturing in Haiti was investigated. From these main inputs, three different manufacturing economic scenarios were modeled using a simple, dynamic excel spreadsheet. The first model reflects single family implementation, which reasonable found that a family would be able to make back their start up costs within a month of production. The second model examined sugarcane bagasse charcoal production as an entrepreneurial endeavor for a small community. The third model is similar to the second model, but reflects large-scale factory production. The potential of the second and third models primarily depend on the cost of raw materials and transportation. These models are easily adjusted to reflect market rates and can be generalized to address similar start-up economies.