Jessy Kidula

A mechanical and process Engineerwith 5 years of experience in the Food and waste to value Industries. I have a knack for technology commercialization having successfully implemented a Black soldier Fly (BSF) rearing facility. I am also a technology consultant for start-ups developing waste-to-value and FMCG technologies directly impacting food security, energy and sanitation.

I ameager to leverage my skills in value Engineering and passion for Sustainable Circular Bio-economy in identifying, scaling, commercializing and sustainably operating New Technologies.

21/11/2021 – CURRENT Nairobi, Kenya

PLANT ENGINEER SANERGY LIMITED

• Identifying production gaps and implementing production optimization projects aimed at improving production efficiency and sustaining operating costs below 500USD/Ton produced. Successfully ramped up the black soldier fly larvae dryer throughput from 0.5Tons/Hr to 1.2Tons/Hr.
• Conducted a maintenance gap analysis and developed a maintenance strategy that improved and sustained the plant’s availability to 85% from 67%, with a consistent TAT of 95%.
• Part of an R&D team exploring different pathways for commercializing liquid fertilizer from human urine and assessing the impact of biochar produced from organic waste on soil structure.
• Working with the Factory manager and the HSSE manager to create a framework for monitoring adherence to equipment operating guidelines to ensure sustained compliance to ISO22001 standards on food safety management.

01/03/2022 – 02/11/2022 Gelderlands, Netherlands

TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION CONSULTANT PYROPOWER

• Designed and prototyped a pyrolytic cook stove that produces bio-char as a by-product as opposed to ash produced in traditional cookstoves
• Conducted concept testing to establish heating efficiency and biochar quality production from pyrolytic cookstove
• Market suitability assessment of the pyrolytic cookstove within Kenya and competitiveness against traditional cookstoves
• Supported the development of carbon impact assessment reporting structures to support carbon credits trading

04/07/2016 – 04/01/2021 Nairobi, Kenya

CO - FOUNDER NERUVA TECHNOLOGIES

• Identified effective strategies for building sustainable value that attracted a seed funding of 9,000USD
• Acted as the Engineering Lead and drove design improvements to reduce the prototype's overall Capex from 7,000USDto 2500USD

03/03/2020 – 21/11/2021 Kilifi, Kenya

INSTALLATION AND COMMISSIONING LEAD SANERGY LIMITED

• Developed Quality acceptance criteria for equipment and support facilities to be installed for the black soldier fly breeding facility.
• Successfully installed and commissioned $300,000 worth black solder fly rearing facility including power utilities, rearing equipment and structures.
• Developed standard operating guidelines and established an early equipment management framework for the plant.
• Carried out targeted stress tests on different sub-processes to establish production bottlenecks and initiated short-term to medium term debottlenecking initiatives.
• Deployed an equipment redundancy strategy across the facility during the stabilization period to ensure sustained plant uptime.
• Performed equipment upgrades to test out new production technologies and achieved an increased output of 8mg of eggs/fly.

15/02/2019 – 03/03/2020 Nairobi, Kenya

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER SANERGY LIMITED

• Conducted waste streams mapping and feedstock characterization trials to establish the optimum organic waste-to-value protein value that improved productivity and overall waste-to-value conversion by 30%.
• Through trials, I was able to establish the climate conditions that promote black soldier fly larvae survivability and productivity which were incorporated into the design of the full-scale facility
• Performed detailed mechanical designs and process flow iterations , and developed technical specification sheets for sourcing critical equipment (conveyors, sorting lines and waste blenders)for the pre-processing section of the 200T/month organic waste processing facility.
• Co-Authored an abstract titled ‘Closing Nutrient Cycles – Upscaling of Black Soldier Fly treatment in Nairobi’ published on the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and ETH- Zurich websites, 2019.

12/11/2018 – 15/02/2019 Nairobi, Kenya

NEW TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION FELLOW SANERGY LIMITED

• Designed and developed technical specification sheets for a sludge pump and bio-digester tank.
• Conducted successful technical sourcing of pumps and bio-digester accessories from international vendors.
• Successfully commissioned a 40kW biogas powered generator and the entire CHP system.
• Developed a business case to validate the financial feasibility of scaling up and incorporating the CHP system in the full scale BSFL facility.

04/01/2018 – 12/11/2018 Nairobi, Kenya

PROJECTS ENGINEER HYDROMASTERS LIMITED

• Created detailed design documents based on specific client needs, site constraints and budget limitations for new water treatment plants.
• I worked closely with equipment suppliers and main contractors on different projects to ensure that the system was built to the required specifications and installed properly.
• Drove the timely delivery of projects, within budget and design specifications and ensured timely communication of progress and escalation of constraints

02/10/2017 – 04/01/2018 Nairobi, Kenya

GRADUATE TRAINEE HYDROMASTERS LIMITED

Underwent a 3-month training on the following key areas applicable to water treatment and sanitation;

• Design of water treatment plants and process flow using P&ID tools based on process specifications
• Pump system sizing and selection criteria based on head, flow rate and friction losses.
• Understanding the various regulatory requirements for water treatment and sanitation services, such as those set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

01/06/2016 – 31/08/2016 Kisumu, Kenya

ENGINEERING INTERN FARM ENGINEERING INDUSTRIES LIMITED (FEIL)

Interned in the general practices applied to the design, selection and application of agricultural machinery. Focused on reliability-centered maintenance strategies of farm hydraulic power.

01/07/2015 – 30/09/2015 Nairobi, Kenya

ENGINEERING INTERN KENYA BREWERIES LIMITED

Performed tests aimed at assessing the impact of incorporating a wort pre-heater on the thermal efficiency of the wort boiling process as part of the plant-wide Energy recovery initiative

01/09/2012 – 17/11/2017 Nairobi, Kenya BSC. BIOMECHANICAL AND PROCESS ENGINEERING

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)