[Stoves] Fwd: {Vetiver System} Vetiver, stoves, and biochar

[Trevor Richards]

This may be of interest to biochar & stove groups. I don't have access from
here to forward to any of the Linkedin groups...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Grimshaw <r.grimshaw at comcast.net>
Date: 14 December 2011 08:05
Subject: {Vetiver System} Vetiver, stoves, and biochar
To: Vetiver System <vetiver-system at googlegroups.com>
Cc: mike mahowald <memahowald at gmail.com>



I was speaking with Criss Juliard this morning and he reminded me about the
good work being done by Mike Mahowald's <memahowald at gmail.com> group, Haiti
Reconstruction <http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/> in Haiti with respect
to using vetiver for fueling efficient cooking stoves.  Let me first say
how impressed I am with the various programs that his group sponsors.  It
is doing a terrific job.  It has quite a focus on the Vetiver System for: soil
and water conservation<http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/page/vetiver-grass-uses>
, soil fertility<http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/video/haiti-conservation-3step>,
and biofuel<http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/page/alternative-fuel-for-haiti>.
 Haiti Reconstruction is promoting TLUD
stoves - Top Lit Up Draft gasifiers
stoves<http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/page/tlud-stoves-for-haiti-2>
as
the best stove design for Haiti.  These stoves are relatively cheap and
will burn any sort of fuel including grass and vetiver produces very high
heat output compared to other species; they burn cleanly and efficiently,
have a good life expectancy, no dirty charcoal and no nee to use trees;
smokeless, and produces biochar that can be returned to the soil.  The
group will also be pellitizing vetiver leaves as fuel.  Assuming that a
country wide vetiver program emerges for erosion and flood control, as well
as for slope stabilization there will be a lot of vetiver biomass that
could be used as biofuel.  Incidentally these TLUD stoves should be able to
be made by any village metal working shop.  Other low income countries
could and should follow this example.

Here are a few botanical facts about Vetiver *(Gueric Boucard) with regard
to Biofuel use*:

1)    According to Dr. Massimo Maffei of the University of Turin, Italy,
Vetiver is the one plant on the planet with the highest photosynthetic
activity.  What this means, is that, given x amount of sunshine and
sufficient water and nutrients, vetiver produces the most dry biomass per
unit of time.****

2)    Other plants produce a tremendous tonnage of biomass per hectare like
potatoes, sugarcane, sugar beets, grapes, etc. Some of these plants even
yield more than 100 tons per hectare. However, such biomass contains 50% or
more water moisture, and is difficult, if not impossible to dry quickly in
the sun.  Vetiver Hay is easily sun dried in a few hours, and produces up
to 70 or 80 dry-tons per hectare of cellulosic biomass with adequate water
and nutrients.  Unlike other biomass, vetiver grows above ground and is
relatively easy to harvest, by hand or with the right, specially designed
Mower.

3)    Vetiver (vetiveria zizanoides) is from the “Graminae” family, like
many other  grasses and grains.  However, the variety found in Haiti and
the Dominican Republic does not propagate by seed. (This is a great
advantage; otherwise, it would be a terrible weed to eradicate). Instead,
Vetiver is a perennial, which grows in a clump of seedlings, and which
propagates vegetatively by replanting the separated seedlings. A
one-year-old clump contains up to 100 seedlings. The propagation ratio is
about 50:1.  In other words, it takes one hectare of a Vetiver nursery to
re-plant 50 hectares. Since Vetiver is technically a “rhizome”, the single
seedling will grow on the periphery, until the plant reaches a diameter of
30 cm after one year and of nearly 1 meter after several years. Such a
vetiver plantation can last up to 15 or 20 years without replanting.  Once
the plantation is established, there is virtually zero maintenance, other
than watering and fertilizing. An established VETIVER plantation is a
veritable BIOMASS FUEL FACTORY that only needs to be mowed as needed, any
time of the year.  ****

More from Boucard <http://www.vetiver.org/DR-alternative%20energy.pdf>
Spare a few minutes to check out Haiti Reconstruction site, I can promise
you that you will learn something useful.  If bilateral and multilateral
development agencies would just stand back and THINK for a moment, they
would soon realize that the Vetiver System will not only mitigate against
extreme weather conditions, but will conserve soil, moisture and increase
crop yields: and the residues can provide fuel for cooking and heat. What
more can you ask from one of the cheapest and friendliest green
technologies on Planet Earth.  In other words VS is key for tackling
CLIMATE CHANGE  issues.

Dick Grimshaw





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