Boredom leads to bright spark: SA coffee firelighters ignite interest in Oz

Many people need coffee to kick-start their day. Now you can use it to kick-start your evening braai, too, with SA-made coffee firelighters. 

Locally-produced coffee-based firelighters are now sparking barbecues as far afield as Australia, as the new product starts to make a global impact.

Firefly Biofuel is the brainchild of Cape Town entrepreneur Kai Casson, who began tinkering with small business ideas during time off work from the offshore oil industry. “When I come home I have a lot of time off and I needed to have something to do,” Casson told Sunday Times Daily. “Sitting around getting bored is the fastest way to divorce.”

Rather than get on each other’s nerves, Casson and his wife Mariska van der Heide have now teamed up to grow the business.

The idea stemmed from a dinner conversation with a friend who didn’t know what to do with her furniture waste. Casson designed a rudimentary wood chip press and used the waste to create fire lighters, but then later decided to substitute it with coffee waste. “We now collect from several local coffee shops free of charge,” explained Casson, who works out of their workshop in Brackenfell. “Coffee is an underused resource. It is high in calories and nitrates.”

Sitting around getting bored is the fastest way to divorce.

—  Cape Town entrepreneur Kai Casson

He said the shops benefited from free waste disposal, and he received a supply of potential biofuel, to which he added an “accelerant” in the form of vegetable wax. The biofuel product burnt at 100ºC hotter than traditional petroleum-based firelighters and produced biodegradable waste.

“It is child and pet safe, biodegradable and compostable,” said Casson, who concedes he wasn’t expecting his spare time project to take off like it did. “We had no intention of going to market with it — it was just something to keep me busy and to stop my wife from killing me.”

The business received a massive boost last year with a two-ton order from an Australian charcoal company. However, transport costs were a major barrier to further export growth due to the low cost of the product and the high shipping cost, Casson said. The business has also been affected by Covid-19 lockdown, which delayed export plans.  “But (export) conversations continue,” he added.

Casson now hopes to expand the business footprint locally with plans to extend to Johannesburg. He said the product, in addition to sparking an energetic blaze, provided coffee retailers with a zero waste solution.

“Our ultimate goal has and always will be to produce environmentally sound products that not only outstrip traditional counterparts in quality but also performance, while achieving our ‘Truly Green’ targets and in the process reducing toxic and dangerous chemicals from the home,” Casson said.