Dear Richard,
When the TLUD has proper fuels it can burn very cleanly. So expertize
will become more and more necessary to help design processed fuels
that emit 90% less CO and PM in practice. Maybe we can make the focus
of the next Summer Stove Camp "How to Make/Find Clean Burning Fuels
for TLUDs"?
All Best,
Dean
On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 2:47 PM, Richard Stanley
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Otto,
Having introduced the briquettes with the godfather of the
technology-- Dr Ben Bryant( U. Washington, Seattle, Washington) --
in Haiti in 2001, and subsequently having worked with several
Haitian groups online to date, I have to say that the resources
are there in-country. They are even more plentiful now with all
the foreign aid packaging/paper and general waste generated as a
result.
Emergency relief, for all its obvious and good intentions not
withstanding...I'm sure that we all agree that Haiti's solution in
the long run, lies in meaningful employment, not aid handouts.
It is key to focus on that aspect and not more distribution of
pre packaged solutions that determines long term stability of not
only the environment but the population and the politics as well.
Having said that, ex president Clinton's observed "one cent
solution" is apparently turning out to be a good deal more costly
than that, eh?
That the producers are using trash (as opposed to agro residues
and carboniferous commercial processing wastes) is an assured
invitation for 1), substantial cost in sorting and/or 2), lots of
smoke and stink and other things one does not want in a fire,
esp., in a cookstove.
Your notes about the briquettes thermal performance though,
suggest a much deeper problem in the way the project was planned
and organised in the first place.
Let me back up a bit here for some explanation of my reasoning:
There are two levels of briquetting:
The first is the quick-fix operation which sees an easy and quick
entry, with a great photo op and a big development splash in the
media..
Usually too, there is a great focus on the pressing and the type
of press used but really pressing has little to do with quality of
the final product at least in comparison to the processing of the
biomass that preceeds it. But processing is not the sexy part for
big splash development: Seeing briquettes pop out of the mold is !
Now quick fix briquetting will usually continue as long as the
media is there and/or political / donor / private sector subsides
are there to support production. It gains lots of attention
because of the very NOTION of the idea, (or the name of the donor
involved), but not necessarily because of its substance in terms
of practical self sustaining impact in the long run...In-depth
thinking of the conseqences of the aid is not a priority.. It is
where, several months into a project, and generally months even
years after training, one learns about poor quality briquettes and
cost issues, frankly.
Briquetting at level 202 is a different story:
It involves careful attention to the would be producer and their
awareness of what it is they will be doing--for whom and for what.
Ie., what impact it will have, not only on their environment but
-of far more immediate consequence-what impact the project will
have on their own economic and socal survival.
The planning of such a project also focuses first on the
marketability of the product..the more ususal production costing,
pricing, packaging, the barriers and opportunities present in the
market place.
Planning also has lots to do with assessment of resources &
agoresidue management, (which is to say something much beyond just
use of paper). It includes selection and pretesting, chopping,
moistening, partially decomposing-- then recombining with same or
other biomass-- to create unique fuels-- tailored to the local
marketplace. Some for example may have aromas traditionally used
for health or just ambiance. In most all cases they will be
blended according to the cooking needs of the local market..
And of course there is lots of thought about how the briquettes
will be used: What about the stove ( or for that matter, no
stove three stone or other burning "appliance") . What (if any)
modifications would have to be made to optimise performance.
Thats briquetting 202 and you only find that kind of skill where
the product is being privately produced and the seller depends up
on the sale of it and their sustained local credibility for their
living..Its basically the typical marketplace and/or local
community environment you find in most of the third world. In
using the term private enterprise, I use it loosely to include
conventional private enterprise as well as community or specific
interest group-based enterprises. All of these can work equally
well --as long as they are not subsidised or externally
steam-rolled by politics or institutional interests and left alone
to be working in direct response to their local market. The market
too can also be an institution, a clinic, a hospital school or
the literal commercial market, as along as the same acountability
, at risk -- at reward elements are at play.
With now abou 15 years in the game are really quite confident
that biquettes can work and work quite well under a wide variety
of resource conditions, cultures and applications. Therefore where
briquettes are "discovered to smoke or not provide much heat" or
"cost too much" the question therefore has to be asked, "where
and how were they trained, under what specific circumstances"?
By comparison to our wood, much less pellet fuel ...A well made
briquette is in fact, be a designer fuel: It is offers far greater
variability of content and application. I therefore wonder really,
who is dealing in something more inferior here...
As to moisture content, agreed that we are not in Norway but we
know a bit about seasoning wood too. (Maybe many of your cousins,
like many other good Scandanavians taught us about that, here in
the pacific northwest ! The briquette is dried to ambient
moisture, whatever that is. It is both highly permeable and porus,
in comparison to wood. It can be bone dried from ambient moisture
in a few minutes by hanging alongside the stove exterior wall or
near it, before insertion== something many are finding very good
results with, in fact..The measure of dryness is again something
one also learns pretty much onsite, in Briquetting 202..
One cent solutions may come and go...but the quality of a truely
embedded process is worth its weight in gold.
I would warmly invite you to the next briquette producers workshop
like the one we just hosted in Arusha Tanzania, to see for
yourself what I am talking about. We can send you a report of that
conference if you or anybody reading this is interested...The task
for us now is not how to improve their own skills ( I doubt if we
could) but rather how to get these real producer and trainers to
communicate with each other. Hang on and enjoy the ride, as we
have lots to learn from the real producers and users and trainers,
in the process.
All the best Otto,
Sorry to sound like a preacher on this, especially to someone who
could just as easily preach to me through his own unique experience .
Richard Stanley
www.legacyfound.org <http://www.legacyfound.org>
On Jan 7, 2011, at 12:29 AM, Otto Formo wrote:
> Dear all and Richard,
> I was told that Nataniel in World Stove manage to get hold of
some pellets from Georgia and shipped to Haiti?!
> Thats a total different story, here we are talking about a
disaster sone and the forestcover on Haiti is close to 2% of its
originally.
> The need of suitable biomass fuel for households was also in an
emergency phase, and still are, I belive...............
>
> What I also have heard from Haiti, is that Clinton`s "One Cent
Solution" briquettes or pucks has not been a success story due to
the fact of its low energy content and diffyculty to ignite.
> Iam not surprised, because I have allways been wondering how you
can add water into a biomass and later sundry it to become an
efficient fuel.
> In the cold winters of Norway we can realy FEEL the difference
of good and bad firewood, either dry, 10% density or raw, from the
heat transfer of the stove.
>
> About Jean`s question:
> This is in AFRICA and costs is not an issue here and the
agriwaste are avaiable according to my knowledge of english as my
second or even third language.
> To Jean`s further question about.....or both?:
> I would just say like Paal:
> Stoves and fuel are linked together...........
> Just like the Mbawula and charcoal in Zambia.
>
> Why give the people of the developing world a "second hand"
solution, when it can be "solved permanently"?
>
> Look at the cellphone industry...............
>
> We are going to Sweden, after our visit to Washington next week,
to see a GEK gasifier to be assembled at the University of
Uppsdala and find out how it works on pellets.
>
> Otto
>
>> From: Richard Stanley [[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>]
>> Sent: 2011-01-06 23:40:06 MET
>> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
[[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>]
>> Subject: Re: [Stoves] When to choose fuel saving stoves over
briquettes?
>>
>> Jean,
>> Perhaps they could get a donor to import pellets like they
attempted in Haiti eh ?
>>
>> Less facetiously, do you mean to say that there is no
agricultural residues: leaves, stalks, grasses, straws, fronds
fens water based weeds etc, chaff husks etc. available ? As well
are you saying that there are no bio-wastes from commercial
processing of biomass: viz., sawdust, paper, cartonboard. If that
is so, then you must be descibing a refugee situation because
there could be little chance of sustained habitation otherwise.
>> The needs of one human being in the tropica and at up to say
1500 meters can easily be met by 300 grams of such wastes or
combinations of same.. 300 grams is abou one armful of loosely
gathered collection of such material at ambient moisture content.
Out theirya Applciations manual lays out a series of sustainable
offtakes ( after soild amendment, tilth and even animal feed
requirements are taken into consideration ---according to various
land forms and land use patterns, from rural farmland, forest
land, dry savannah, to even the urban setting...
>> I would kindly ask where you are intending to set up the
briquetting activity..Perhaps we or the hundreds we know of may
know of someone who is already there producing briquettes who can
train and equip your group. They ill also be best able to tell you
whether or not it is feasible, with what resources..
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Richard Stanley
>> www.legacyfound.org <http://www.legacyfound.org>
>> NW Obamaland
>>
>> On Jan 6, 2011, at 12:15 PM, Jean Kim Chaix wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, stovers.
>>> Question: a community in Africa, where woodfuel is in short
supply, is considering starting a briquette program. (The area
does have access to ag waste for briquette-making.) If cost is not
an issue, should the community invest in briquette making
technology or try distributing high efficiency cookstoves? Or both?
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> --
>>> J. Kim Chaix
>>> CEO & Founder
>>>
>>> Green Spaces NYC
>>> 394 Broadway, 5th fl.
>>> New York, NY 10013
>>> USA
>>> (+1) 917.378.8670
>>> http://charcoalproject.org
>>>
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