[Stoves] Looking for a stove designed for larger amounts of biochar

[Anand Karve]

Dear Alex,
such a lot of questions! Here are the answers:
 1. how many of these kilns are active: We must have supplied about
two hundred of them but I have no idea how many of them are active.
 2. how much total charcoal all the kilns produce per year or season,
I don't know. It depends on the feedstock. Material like sugarcane
leaves is available throughout the harvesting campaign of sugarcane,
which can vary according to the location from about 5 to 9 months in a
year. In the case of seasonal crops, the window of availability is
rather short, because most crops are season bound and almost all the
fields in a given geographic are are planted and harvested at about
the same time.
3. what percentage of ARTI charcoal briquettes are made with charcoal from
 these kilns, ARTI does not buy char from anybody, but makes its
briquettes from its own char.
 4. how long it takes to earn back the purchase price of the kiln, The
kiln costs about Rs.5000 (U.S.$100) per piece. Assuming that a person
works for 8 hours per day and uses sugarcane leaves, the output of a
kiln is about 30 kg per day. His wife and other members of the family
operate the briquette extruder, which costs Rs.15,000 (U.S.$300). If
the family can sell the briquettes at Rs.10 (US Cents 20) per kg, they
make Rs. 300 (U.S. $6) per day. Ideally, we recommend, that two
persons in a family operate two kilns simultaneously and two women
stay at home and operate the briquette extruder. In this way the
family earns Rs.600 (U.S.$ 12) per day. One can conduct this operation
for about 200 days in a year, resulting into a gross income of Rs.
120,000 (U.S.$ 2400) per year. The kilns are generally completely
burned out (write off Rs.10,000 or US$ 200) in one season, and the
depreciation of the extruder value is about 20%, or Rs.3000 (U.S.$ 60)
per year. Thus the net income of the family is Rs. 107,000 in a period
of about half a year. During monsoon, when no dry biomass is available
for charring, the family works as agricultural labourers.
> 5. how long the kilns last: If used continuously, the kilns last about 6 months. .
> 6. are the number of these kilns in use still growing: No. As far as I know, ARTI is the only organisation regularly making char briquettes and selling them.  ARTI has so far sold almost 50,000 Sarai cookers, which are fuelled exclusively by charcoal and it is mainly the users of Sarai cookers who buy our briquettes.
> 7. is there a subsidy for any part of this energy production-stove chain. There is no subsidy on charcoal. This is because charcoal is not a major cooking fuel in India. In order to save the forests, the Government has not only banned charcoal making in many areas, but it also subsidises the price of LPG.
> 8. has the kiln been adopted beyond your region: A large number of individuals and NGOs have purchased our kilns, but I doubt if they are regularly used, because of the reasons mentioned above.
> 9. what is the bulk density of the charred cane trash as transported before
> being briquetted. It is very light. I have not measured the bulk density.
> 10. average distance it travels from field to market. In our case, it is about 120 km (from our campus in Phaltan to our shop in Pune)
> 11. Are any wheels involved in the cane fields, either moving the kiln to
> the trash or the trash to the kiln. The trash is collected from the field and pulled into one corner by using a tractor.
> 12. Are there any concerns about the loss of nutrients from these fields. Yes there are. One acre produces about 4 tons of dry leaves, which contain about 10% minerals, of which the major part comprises silica. Sometimes the farmer asks to be paid for the loss of nutrients.
Yours
A.D.Karve
On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 7:54 PM, Alex English <english at kingston.net> wrote:
> Dear A.D. Karve,
>
> You have now been at this for a decade or so.   I, predictably, am just
> curious to know more details.
> Perhaps it would be useful  information for others too.
On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 7:54 PM, Alex English <english at kingston.net> wrote:
> Dear A.D. Karve,
>
> You have now been at this for a decade or so.   I, predictably, am just
> curious to know more details.
> Perhaps it would be useful  information for others too.
>
> Concerning your TLUD style kilns, can you share with us ;
>
> 1. how many of these kilns are active,
> 2. how much total charcoal all the kilns produce per year or season,
> 3. what percentage of ARTI charcoal briquettes are made with charcoal from
> these kilns,
> 4. how long it takes to earn back the purchase price of the kiln,
> 5. how long the kilns last.
> 6. are the number of these kilns in use still growing.
> 7. is there a subsidy for any part of this energy production-stove chain.
> 8. has the kiln been adopted beyond your region.
> 9. what is the bulk density of the charred cane trash as transported before
> being briquetted.
> 10. average distance it travels from field to market.
> 11. Are any wheels involved in the cane fields, either moving the kiln to
> the trash or the trash to the kiln.
> 12. Are there any concerns about the loss of nutrients from these fields.
>
>
> Warm regards
> Alex English
>
> On 13/11/2011 11:18 PM, Anand Karve wrote:
>>
>> Dear Stovers,
>> we are currently using 200 litre steel barrels for charring sugarcane
>> leaves into charcoal. Our kilns work on the TLUD principle. Since
>> sugarcane leaves are light in weight and difficult to transport, we
>> send our kilns to the farm where they are harvesting sugarcane,
>> convert the dry leaves into charcoal and bring the charcoal back to
>> our briquetting facility. The gaseous part of the leaves is burned and
>> exhausted. Being an ambient operation, we cannot harvest or use the
>> energy generated by burning the gaseous fraction of the biomass. But
>> since sugarcane leaves are in any case burned in the field itself,
>> nobody mourns for the loss of energy.
>> Yours
>> A.D.Karve
>>
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)