[Stoves] Energy supply and use in a rural West African village

rongretlarson at comcast.net rongretlarson at comcast.net
Sun Jun 3 19:14:22 CDT 2012


Ken: 

Welcome to the USA! 

This is to pick up on only one paragraph from your yesterday's message (I have snipped the rest below). 

Ron 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Boak" <ken.boak at gmail.com> 
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2012 10:10:14 PM 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Energy supply and use in a rural West African village 

Mark and Nathan, 

Thank you for a fascinating and important study into the energy usage of a rural Mali village. 

<snip (I have yet to read it, but I heard the presentation at ETHOS. I think maybe more on stoves in the next paper coming.> 

A conversion from a wood energy economy to a charcoal energy economy, would allow an increase in energy efficiency, provide employment, and produce a sellable product. Whilst charcoal is already being used in the village - it's production is likely to be inefficient, and investment in a larger scale charcoal producing facility/enterprise could lead to a greater efficiency of wood use. Combining charcoal production - and it's waste heat and gas production, with shea oil processing could lead to a possible synergy. 

[RWL: 1. I am a strong proponent of making and using charcoal - but almost never only for its energy value - rather insisting on use of the char for soil improvement and carbon sequestration and the pyrolysis gases for energy. So I am all for using wood for shea oil processing - but with char as a by-product. Here's hoping that in your new position you can bring more attention to the BEK: 
(http://www.biochar-international.org/AllPowerLabs/BEK) 

2. I haven't the time to positively determine if char sales are illegal in Mali - but I think so. Regardless, I think the char sales price is likely way under its value. There is a lot of information on how badly charcoal production is hurting all/most of the African (and other) countries. Here is one from about 2008 that makes that point: 
http://www.inbar.int/publication/TXT/Charcoal%20conference%20proceedings_final_29Decjw.htm 

3. There are a growing number of ways that wood can be utilized much more sustainably with char as a co-product (see for instance 
www.coolplanetbiofuels.com 
Both today's char makers and cooks in Mali and elsewhere will be happier with a char-making stove economy than a char-using stove economy. The former can prepare wood for the char-making stoves - almost certainly by trimming rather than cutting down trees. The users can make, rather than spend money, as they cook. 
I can't tell from your single paragraph above whether you would agree - but if not, I hope we can discuss this more at the (now) nearby Sonoma Biochar conference at the end of July. Perhaps you can bring along a BEK. 

Ron 

<snip> 

regards 

Ken Boak 

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