[Stoves] Charcoal in Gambia

Wed Aug 10 15:45:25 CDT 2011

Hi all,

Many are very busy trying to convince the world that the average household in the subsistence third world, will take charcoal and bury it for some long term gain, and fair enough, it does reduce CO output towards the not quite so glowing ember stage of the (often at least, hollow core briquette) burn and of course does technically add to soil productivity and it also sequesters carbon and potentially provide charcoal for the next briquette  but these are relatively long term investments for the one of us living at a subsistence level, daily.  The ethos of survival  is very short term in scope...

In more direct answer to Ron's questions as built on yours and his own vast experience, what I can offer from my own experience, is  that lower density residues can indeed be used to create nice ( 0.3 to 0.5 sg) briquettes and far more dense ones than that using charcoal fines and other more dense combustibles as infillers) WITHOUT extreme pressure ( we get long quite nicely at about 14 - 15 bars/kgs per cm^2) . Its all about what is selected and how it is processed and that is all about working with the indigineous citisens to discover with and through their own eyes, what they feel works best. We are the mecahnics of that process. They must be the drivers...

As to rsource availability I take issue with the mentioned government statement. I have yet to go anywhere in the world where agricultursal residies and residues off any landscape cannot support the ongoing local population. All you need is 300-400 grams of the stuff per person per day. 
• Take it to Darfur and the population is not an ongoing number but rather a crisis situation and of course all bets are off. 
• Take it even out into the Kalari desert and the model  stands because so few Wakladi actually live there anyway. 
and certainly, there is no city in the world where the resource supply cannot feed the citisens becasue of all the commercial processing wastes that  can be added to the mix.

We can thorough the good efforts of Francis Oloo, a slum dweller in Kangemi Kenya in 2003, replicate his simple hinge press for far less cost than even half a day's production of briquettes the producer can sell-in their own local market.

Production by the masses not mass production: Its all built on that..

Pressign on, 
Richard Stanley
www.legacyfound.org
NW Obamaland

On Aug 10, 2011, at 11:56 AM, Paul Olivier wrote:

> Undensified agricultural waste might be the best option here.
> Densification or pellitization is too expensive in many instances.
> 
> Paul Olivier
> 
> On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 10:31 PM, <rongretlarson at comcast.net> wrote:
> Crispin, cc list:
> 
>    Can you ask Cecil to get a few more price numbers - including loose rice husks, peanut shells, wood sticks and chips, pellets.  Anything that can be readily pyrolyzed and is relatively low cost.
> 
>    The Gambian prices of about 15 to 20 c/kg  ($150-$200/ tonne) are certainly pretty low.   However, I hope we can all agree that is not the only thing we should be discussing.  What is the social cost of that char?   My guess is that it is at least double or maybe triple that number - even before you start looking at the climate implications.   Was the input wood for the char grown by the char maker?  Not usually in these cases.
> 
>  I found (by googling) dozens of news items on the illegal production of charcoal outlawed in Gambia.  (Don't google for 'legal" and "charcoal")  The same is true in Kenya - which we have also been discussing.  Does anyone know of any African country where char production is considered a plus for the economy?  Living in Sudan has convinced me that charcoal making is the number one reason for that country's disappointing history.
> 
> I found this at this Gambian planning site  <  http://www.npc.gov.gm/sectors/energy  >
>     "One of the key determinants of socio-economic development is the availability of reliable supply of
> affordable sources of energy that impacts directly on poverty. Past experiences suggest a close
> relationship between energy use and poverty reduction through sustainable economic growth. A
> review of the Gambia’s energy sector reveals that the energy resource base of the country is limited
> and the energy supply unreliable and unsustainable. The major source of energy for the whole
> country, according to the Energy Data (1990 – 2004), is fuel wood, which is extracted from the
> country’s forest resources, followed by petroleum products, electricity and renewable energy. Total
> energy consumed in 2004 was 467 thousand Ton Oil Equivalent (TOE).
> Fuel wood consumption account for 374.89 thousand TOE, representing about 82% of all energy
> consumed in the country. The over-reliance of the city and major urban centres on fuel wood
> (firewood and charcoal) is destroying the country’s forest resources and natural vegetation cover at
> an alarming rate, causing general environmental degradation. While these forest resources are
> fetched from the rural areas, the participation of the rural people in the business of fuel wood are
> limited (according to Lahmeyer International Reports) and therefore impacting negatively on the
> poor. In addition, the use of fuel wood has serious negative health implication on women. The
> depletion of the forest cover leading to desertification, would impact negatively on food production,
> which could lead to increased hunger and poverty"
> 
>    If the peanut log is 6  Dalasi, your comment below doesn't make sense to me in terms of balancing from the perspective of the user.  Your suggested markup by 50% is sort of like saying that the right purchase price of ethanol (with lower fuel content per gallon) is one that is higher per gallon than the price of petrol - doesn't work that way in Colorado.  I would be surprised to hear that many of these logs are being sold.  I'd like to hear from Richard Stanley or other ag residue briquette makers on how his briquettes are priced in comparison with char..
> 
>    I'll bet the user of a charcoal-making stove can get the cost of cooking a meal down to zero by selling the produced char (of course for putting in the ground) for enough to pay for the (presumed to be very low) cost of input biomass.  Of course the economics in favor of a char-making stove is a no-brainer if the input fuel is free, nearby and already being burned as a waste.  It also works if soil productivity is raised sufficiently - which seems to be the word coming out of Africa  (a doubling?)
> 
> Ron
> 
>    
> From: "Crispin Pemberton-Pigott" <crispinpigott at gmail.com>
> To: "Stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 9, 2011 10:15:54 PM
> Subject: [Stoves] Charcoal in Gambia
> 
> Dear Charcoal Price Observers
> 
> Cecil Cook in the Gambia reports that charcoal is 4 to 5 Dalasi per kg in Banjul (about 27 MJ.kg)
> 
> Peanut shell extruded logs are 6 Dalasi per kg retail to do better than break even (about 19 MJ/kg).
> 
> There are 27 Dalasi per US$.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Crispin
> 
>  
> 
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