Peering into this discussion from Nicaragua, let me suggest these simple
calculations of sustainable offtake;
Weent through this assessment and deived soem tables as guidlines -in Uganda
(2002-4) in concert with a long embedded Japanese agricultural project as well
as with the government's own agricultural department. The tables are laid out
according to the land use type form urban to rural farmland temperate to
tropical forrest, savannah etc. They are only guidlines for your own local
interpretation but at known biomass briquette consumption rates per person per
day (275 grams +/- 25 grams ---ex alti-plano elevations), for at least the
hollow core ambient temp, wet processed hollow core briquettes, they can give
you an idea of what the "non wood biomass fuel carrying capacity" of your
environment is --or can be. Its in the Theory and Applications manual on our
website. but if anybody is interested, I will send the three or foru pages to
you directly.
HAsta,
Richard Stanley
www.legacyfound.org
On Nov 29, 2013, at 9:52 PM, [email protected] wrote:
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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