[Stoves] Could barbecues help fight climate change?

[Anand Karve]

Dear Mr. Helferty,
the idea of using a charcoal making stove for cooking and putting the
resultant charcoal into the soil is an idea that has been suggested years
ago by Ron Larson. Secondly, it is not true that most of the carbon in the
fuel is retained in the charcoal. It is likely that you were just quoting
Zaelke, but the pyrolysis gas, that is burned in these stoves also contains
carbon. My estimate is that charcoal retains about half of the original
carbon in the fuel.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 10:46 PM, Lloyd Helferty <lhelferty at sympatico.ca>wrote:

>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/oct/21/barbecues-climate-change
> October 21, 2010
>
> Durwood Zaelke's emergency plan for tackling climate change ranges from the
> Montreal protocol to carbon-negative barbecues
>
> Barbecues that remove CO2 from the air could play a role in the fight
> against climate change according to Durwood Zaelke, a leading expert on
> rapid responses to global warming.
>
> This year's outdoor cooking season might be over, but Zaelke suggested at
> last week's 10:10 talk that from next summer consumers should start
> demanding barbecues that do their bit for the planet by generating rather
> than consuming charcoal – or biochar.
>
> Zaelke's idea is based on a stove designed for use in the developing world
> by Rob Flanagan. The stove creates heat by turning wood or other biomass
> into charcoal, a process that releases combustible gases.
>
> Once the cooking is over, most of the carbon from the fuel remains in the
> stove in the form of charcoal. This can then be mixed in with soil, a
> process that sequesters the carbon for thousands of years and boosts crop
> productivity.
>
> ... But whatever we do with non-CO2 gases, Zaelke says, we also urgently
> need not just to reduce carbon dioxide, but to get to a point as soon as
> possible where the world becomes carbon negative, with humans sequestering
> more CO2 than we release. "That might sound crazy," he says, "but we could
> do it".
>
> The biochar barbecue idea is, I guess, really just a way for Zaelke to
> remind us that there are various techniques – on big and small scales – that
> we could use to suck CO2 out of the air.
>
> --
>
>  Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
>  Principal, Biochar Consulting (Canada)
>  www.biochar-consulting.ca
>  603-48 Suncrest Blvd, Thornhill, ON, Canada
>  905-707-8754; 647-886-8754 (cell)
>     Skype: lloyd.helferty
>  Steering Committee member, Canadian Biochar Initiative
>  President, Co-founder&  CBI Liaison, Biochar-Ontario
>    Advisory Committee Member, IBI
>  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1404717
>  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42237506675
>  http://groups.google.com/group/biochar-ontario
>  http://www.meetup.com/biocharontario/
>  http://grassrootsintelligence.blogspot.com
>   www.biochar.ca
>
> Biochar Offsets Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2446475
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)

*Please change my email address in your records to: adkarve at gmail.com *
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