[Stoves] and on planting pods, elephants, camels and the socio tech bits too.

Wed Dec 7 05:55:29 CST 2011

Thanks for that Alex: 

You are correct r: The manuals glosover the socio tech parts but they are still relevent in the techn end though... I just drew upon some of the "briquette carrying capacity" assessment tables in the theory and apps section  for a assessmentof resources for forthcoming relief project up in Somaliland  but you are right:  the socio-tech treatment in these manuals far too light. 

We just completed a marketing manual through a dutch consultant and it does indeed get much closer at lest to the delivery end of the process.  My problem is that while I have a technical education, I also started out as a peace corpsman (sri lanka matha '67-9) so that the development worker side constantly tempers the inclination to pure technical fixes… Suspect that there are more than a few of us on this list of like minds in fact and  that interface is what makes the list so compelling eh ? 

Actually the briquette is being found to help your mentioned  tree planter as well…..

 take a look at  Daly Brennan <brennan at forestsinternational.org>dalys work for New Brunswick based, Community Forests International's --on Pemba Island off Tanzania . They are producing the briquette not only for fuel but as a plastic bag-free, fertiliser-intense, slow-release, planting pod…(an original idea of the godfather of briquetting, the late Ben Bryant).  The trainers for that project, Francis and Mary Kavita have been using them for the past 5 years in their own village based Miumbuni womens association nursery in Sultan Hamud, Kenya.  Mary and Francis have trained all over Kenya, since we started them through the good assistance of the Wood family in 2001: They do not have email: They receive it in the form of week old hand written snail mail-posted letters --transcriptions--from their son who lives in Nairobi…They recently brought in  samples of elephant dung briquettes from Voi Kenya…and they are soon to experiment with camel dung for another project and We will all, as ususal, be looking to all your insights, to collectively solidify the experiential side of it. 

Planting pot briqettes : Courtesy of Communtiy forests International's, Brennan Daly 

 The socio tech narrative: Sure,  when we find the time but getting the hands-on contact with those living directly with
the consequences of their actions out here is the real "meat" (sorry vegetrians)  of it all  and well, personally, I can't find words for that. 
If you Alex, or anybody wants to jump in, writing the social tech interface part, please do. (Joel was intersted in a comprehensive book of it all at one point Alex..)

Pressing on,

Richard Stanley

On Dec 7, 2011, at 2:52 AM, Alex English wrote:

> Hi Richard,
> Is it fair to say that the technology side of your ag briquette fuel paradigm has progressed to the point that recent improvements are small?
> I am a tech guy who likes to here tales of "oh well, to bad, not this time". I can see that in the right hands and community its all good. Surely there are examples where it didn't just all fall into place.
> I could be wrong, but I don't think the manuals you sell are about the cultural challenges or non mech-tech part the equation.
> What holds this idea back.....tree planters:)
> 
> Alex
> 
> On 04/12/2011 4:11 PM, Richard Stanley wrote:
>> Hi  Alex,
>> 
>> The kind of variations you, Paal and others are experiencing in attempting to combust such as a bannana peel, reflect much of the fine tuning we have to do when selecting  agro residues even those of a particular species in different bioregions.. Intersting eh ? The notion that one could waash out soloubles such as potassium to make the bananna skin more combustible is well practiced in many plants at the local level. Its in finding and incorporating  technico-cultural practices like this,  that the more clever biomass briquette maker thrives. Combined with an analytical assessment of the process its a powerful tool  eh ?
>> 
>> But you are not alone on the western front either:
>>  A one Joel Chaney has recently completed his PhD in Mechnical Engineering at Nottingham University. Prior to that asn erhaps as part of it, he had been working on banana briquettes for some time in Africa. ( His crowning demonstration of the feasability of using the peels was in the briquetting of them and  cooking with them to make …Banana fritters…
>> 
>> Less facetiously, Joel has done a wonderful technical analysis of the briquette combustion as a function of shape in the course of his studies…
>>  Here is his email contact:  Joel Chaney<joel.chaney at gmail.com>  But I see that Marc kindly sent you more specific referencesto Joels work and to a BBC piece on him while at Nottingham.
>> 
>> At the same time a on Lee Hite, a professional engineer and woodworker, with Engineers without Borders in Ohio, US, has been working on technologies for processing agroresidues focussing on bananna bark --for briquetting. His efforts have culminated in new forms of simple hand operated  presses, a chopper and grinder.
>> Lees site is;
>>    http://home.fuse.net/engineering/
>> 
>> 
>> Richard Stanley
>> 
>> Dar es Salaam Tz.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Dec 4, 2011, at 3:10 PM, ajheggie at gmail.com wrote:
>> 
>>> On Sunday 04 December 2011 13:31:11 Alex English wrote:
>>> 
>>>> The numbers here
>>>> http://ejeafche.uvigo.es/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,
>>>> 495 don't add up but other sources suggest peels are around 15% ash.  8%
>>>> potassium, a component of fire retardant, might be the reason. I think
>>>> they sub'd manganese for magnesium.
>>> Which seems to show they should be a good animal feed, I've never tried to
>>> eat a banana and its peel but baana peel was the preferred titbit for our
>>> dairy bull.
>>>> You could try blending the peels with water which should remove a lot
>>>> of the soluble K and then after drying it, or even before, make a holy
>>>> briquette :)
>>> 
>>> When pelleting&  briquetting has been discussed here I've often wondered
>>> id pressure cooking, draining under pressure and then flashing the
>>> residue would be a means of quickly leaching out soluble salts.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for finding the info Alex, I eat a banana most days so will try and
>>> save a few skins for experiment.
>>> 
>>> AJH
>>> 
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