Re: [Stoves] plant physiology

Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:07:36 -0800


Dear Friends

It may be helpful to mention for those of more limited means that there is an annual Domestic Use of Energy (DUE) conference held annually during the first week of April. There is a parallel session throughout the event just for stoves and stove issues. 

It is held in Cape Town and includes a site visit to something interesting. 

Details available. Call for papers is presently open. 

Regards 
Crispin 
Sent: Saturday, November 30, 2013 11:53
Reply To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: [Stoves] plant physiology

thanks Arnand
 
I hope to come to Ethos but might be in Tanzania working.
 
do you have any data on how much fuel you can grow at some maximum rate?    
 
My concern is that we can't expect poor rural people to focus their water gathering energies and land use on firewood production.  Of course, if they can burn dried up corn plants and stuff like that it is all to the good.  integrating growth of fuel and food is always a good idea.
 
bob
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Anand Karve <[email protected]>
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <[email protected]>
Sent: Fri, Nov 29, 2013 10:40 pm
Subject: Re: [Stoves] ETHOS program growing firewood

Dear Bob Lange and Stovers,
I am a plant physiologist. I won't mind attending Ethos Meeting if somebody pays me my air fare and local expenses.
The high energy in seeds and tubers that you mention has nothing to do with the physical calorific value of these substances. They have a high content of digestible matter so that the energy becomes available to you, when you eat them. Burning sugar, starch, cellulose or lignin would release about the same quantity of energy per unit weight. Because cellulose and lignin are not digestible to humans, the straw and stover from crop plants, constituting about 60 to 70% of the total biomass, is available to the farmer to be used as fuel. It must however be processed to increase its energy density to resemble that of wood.
Yours
A.D.Karve
 

 
On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 5:09 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
I think we should invite a plant physiologist to come to ETHOS to explain why  we should not focus on getting people to grow their own fuel.   Plants are living things. In the first place they are not very efficient at all in catching the energy in sun light.  But what they do catch they put mostly into metabolism and reproduction.   Like us animals.  That is why we eat seeds.   They are loaded with energy that the plant put there for their young to use until the little ones can photosynthesize for themselves.    Mammals use the mother's milk   Plants use their seeds.  (Some animals, not mammals, use eggs for reproduction.  So we eat eggs.)
 
If you are rural and poor and have a little land and sufficient water, you will almost certainly want to grow food itself rather than fire wood.   no?  Fire wood is very demanding of land area.   You can be clever and minimize it. This species that species.    but it is land expensive.   Because the part of the plant you burn for fuel is not important to the plant, except to support its leaves.  so the  plant puts minimal energy there.
 
If growing fuel wood is going to be taken seriously, it should be a government task.  Local or national  government.   Centralize it.   Do it big and well on land that individual families don't need to grow food itself.  do it on land that is difficult to use for other things.  On the sides of hills.  someplace useless.  someplace rocky.  Make it a campaign in the Global Alliance's "enabling environment".
 
Funny, but the problem is that people cook so much.   What we need are more species of plants and animals that produce parts that we could find nourishing and tasty and desirable without cooking at all.   Damn it.   Why do we have to heat up food so much?   Maybe soak the food in some liquid like fruit juice or spices some natural acid for all day and then serve it.   I know cooking has a very significant role in make food culturally and physiologically acceptable.   But If only we could find more foods that were good for us, culturally and physiologically, but eaten raw.  That would be real stove progress.  I personally like to eat almost all vegetables raw.   even beans and corn.  I don't know if I am throwing away a lot of their nutrition, though.
 
Bob Lange    Maasai stoves and solar.
 
 

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--
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)

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