Kim Coates

YEP period 2015 - 2017, batch 8

Young Expert at Q Energy Consultants - Uganda

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First position after YEP

Operations Director at Sistema Biobolsa, the Netherlands

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YEP Role

Q Energy is a Dutch company selling PVC bio digester. The bio digesters can be fed by organic waste such as cow dung and can produce bio gas which can be used for cooking or co-fuelling a diesel generator. The by-product is bio slurry which is can be used as fertilizer. Q Energy started in 2011 and is based in the Netherlands and in Uganda. The bio digesters are available in multiple sizes; small for domestic use, medium for institutions and large for the industrial market. At the moment Q Energy has sold digesters to clients in Kenya, Rwanda, Liberia and Uganda. After a market study in 2015, now Q Energy wants to expand their domestic market in Uganda in Lira and approach new markets in Uganda and Kenya; the dairy sector in Rushere and coffee sector in Mount Elgon.

 

For this Q Energy hired me as a Young Expert with a technical background. My work mainly focused on approaching the dairy market and expanding the domestic market in Uganda. For the dairy market, my job was identifying six locations, guide the installation and operation for the six institutional digesters at cooling centres for 12 months. These digesters were fed with the cow dung from the milk farmers and the bio gas will be used to co-fuel a diesel generator to cool the milk. For the expansion of the domestic market my job was mainly optimising the current design and standardising the installation and service procedures.

 

Click here for more information about my project.

 

Click here for more information about my previous project in Malawi.

 

Skills

Sanitation Expert, Product Designer, Business Adviser, Renewable Energy

Background

Nationality: Dutch
Education: I have a technical background in innovative product design, healthcare and water purification and I hold a Bachelor of Engineering degree with specialization in Industrial Product Design.

 

Experience before YEP

Before Q Energy, I worked as a Business Adviser at the Dutch NGO WASTE. I was based in Malawi for a year and based in the Netherlands for 3 years, working on sanitation improvement for the poor. Before WASTE I worked as a Product Manager at a company which develops water purification solutions, implementing and overseeing projects for water purification units for use in ground wells and low cost drinking water purifiers for countries with a low living standard or developing countries. I have also worked as a Senior Mechanical Engineer, leading a team of mechanical engineers, and was responsible for the mechanical engineering of several receive coils to be used in newly- developed MRI scanners.