[Stoves] Drawing down the dung pile

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Richard Et Al

 

Valuable contribution. Thanks.

 

There was a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda in 1976-ish whose next move was
to Mbabane, Swaziland in about 1978. He wrote a booklet for PC on how to use
the wash water from cow dung to make what they called something like
dung-water. It was prepared in pits. 

 

Two pits are dug side by side with a short connecting canal. The dung is put
into one pit and it is nearly filled with water. After about 10 days more
water is slowly added and the very top layer flows into the second pit. This
water is collected over a time and mixed with certain select clays. The acid
in the dung water reacts with the clays and sets like concrete. It is hard
enough to make house foundations (which do not need to be very strong) and
to take water running over the surface, such as drains around the house.

 

What might be useful is to briquette the remains of the initial operation.
Some plants like sisal produce a lot of acidic run-off when processed. This
could probably be used for the same building purposes. 

 

Back to the goat's 'business'. Will goat dung be substantially different in
chemistry and energy that cattle dung? I expect so - just wondering.

 

Thanks

Crispin

 

AD, Crispin, Frank,  Kevin and all others concerned with dung briquettes, 

 

While in Arusha Tanzania recently, I discovered that one of the lead
briquette trainers in Kenya, Francis Kavita, has been teaching the Masaai
how to make co dung briquettes for the past several months. Your insights,
Kevin and frank  about carcinogens/ chloride blindness etc are intersting
and I have duely passed them on to Francis.   

As to dilution of nasty compounds the normal wet low pressure briquetting
process uses water--- but rarely is anything wasted in the process. The
water expelled for the cylinder on compression, is recycled as well. 

 

However the practice of washing away unwanted elements is common to
briquetters as it is to conventional washing of seeds, beans cassava  and
other plant material in traditional food preparation. In briquetting,
certain carcinogenic and foul smelling glues in certain types of cartonboard
are diluted nad washed off this way. There is no real reason that the same
technique could be applied for preparing "clean cow dung" as well.

 Will revert back to the group with what Francis says about all this..when
he next finds a nearby internet cafe with electricity or at least petrol for
their generator.  

Thanks again though for the insights.

Richard Stanley 

 

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