[Stoves] Jamaican cooking

Tue Apr 5 12:13:42 CDT 2011

Crispin: 

I spent some time on this before realizing there were two "Rons" in here and that I was not the intended recipient of this one below. I am sehrschlecht Schweißer . 

The main addition I think important here is to respond to this statement today in your reply to Otto. 

Otto: ">They do not mentioned anything about the prosessing of the biomass into charcoal will release greenhouse emissions and loose about 50-60% of the energy content in the fuel." 

Crispin: " I think the assumption is that people involved in the stove business already know how charcoal is made." 
RWL: My assumption is that how it was made never appeared in anyone's efficiency calculations - despite their probably not knowing for any particular batch - and probably not caring. Now it is time to care and to include char production efficiency in Jiko efficiency statements. This is for the sake of the forests and of the atmosphere and global warming.. The use of charcoal for cooking is an abomination and should be as much outlawed as is the growing practice of outlawing charcoal production. My own experience with charcoal in Sudan is that charcoal making/use has ruined that fine country. 
One can improve lots of things - maybe even buggy whips - but we should be talking here on this list of something other than sub-optimum solutions. With charcoal-making stoves, the users can make money - not expend it. The made-char should be put in the ground - as is being done for all (?) :Lucia stoves. 
The subject of aluminum vs steel vs ceramics is great. 

Ron Holzkohler Larson 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Crispin Pemberton-Pigott" <crispinpigott at gmail.com> 
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 8:51:43 AM 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Jamaican cooking 

Dear Ron 

>…wouldn't a reduction in the amount of _charcoal_ used also reduce the total system effects? I have to assume that the people burning charcoal have decided to do so. If I can reduce the amount of charcoal they are burning, they might even have enough extra cash to buy a tree seedling. 

This was looked at very carefully by Peter Coughlin who makes the POCA, the technology underlying the recent capture of a major award. The benefits of saving even a small amount of charcoal, say 15%, are quite large in terms of the current practises and the total emissions. It certainly pays (in carbon trade) better to save charcoal than to save wood. 

>One interesting thing about aluminum is that its heat transfer capabilities make it surprising hard to melt by a very small fire. 

Same for copper. Even using a cutting torch it is difficult to melt a block of copper. Steel can be melted with char if you have a fan (as Philips found out!) so it is more about heat balance and flow than the material. 

>I'm also not aware of the net "greenhouse emissions" of turning out the steel for a stove vs. the aluminum for a stove, but if you check that out there might be another factor to add into your total equation of life. 

A consideration here is that once produced, aluminum is easily recycled with a very low energy cost which is why roadside producers can turn out products with almost no equipment. It is not only the life cycle of the product that should be considered by the life cycle of the material itself. 

Crispin von Suchenachgutenschweißer 

regards, 

Ronald von Kannschlechtschweißen 

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