[Stoves] More on the Alternatives to Charcoal.

Sat Apr 13 22:22:34 CDT 2013

Dear Dr Nurhuda

Many thanks for your response regarding the availability of biofuels in
Indonesia. The total resource is really large no matter where you are. The
use of rice straw as pelleted fuel would be ideal if it is price
competitive.

Following a lengthy investigation into the economics of cooking the social
science team is presently writing a report that will no doubt capture some
of the reasons why people choose the fuels they do. There is a market
segment of about 10% of the population that is highly sensitive to price. At
present they cook primarily with LPG (not exclusively) but will change to
wood if the price rises even a little.  This same group went in and out of
kerosene use for the same reason.

A great many homes in Central Java use multiple fuels (fuel stacking), even
very poor people have LPG and use it occasionally for specific tasks. Most
homes have several stoves which are used for particular purposes (stove
stacking). Sumba Island is quite different.

The current pilot focuses on two areas: Central Java and Sumba Island. They
are very different and were chosen for that reason. Sumba has two quite
different environments, neither of which is like Central Java. Every
argument for and against various approaches might apply to one or another
area. No solution works everywhere. Money or transport is often the
dominating reason for this. 

Java is extremely densely populated with most trees being in the vicinity of
homes. Farms are largely devoid of trees as can be seen from the air. The
patches of trees are the villages. This is the opposite of many African
settlements.

The wide availability of subsidised fuels creates changes in that portion of
the market where those cheap fuels are available. Many decisions are based
on minimising cost, and many are based on convenience with cost as a factor
even if it is not dominant.  To bring in pellets, the value chain must be
viable.

As mentioned before, China is experimenting with producing large quantities
of pellets from crop residues and there are some documents available on the
challenges. A lot of the cost is transport of raw materials and the final
product. Obviously producing and consuming locally is the best from a
transport point of view. From a production aspect, bigger is better because
the equipment is not cheap and wears rapidly even when made with very
advanced materials. The discussion document about the subsidy is available
and it is carefully considered, basically concluding that there is a limit
to the collection and distribution radius.

The situation in Indonesia is that subsidies went from kerosene to LPG in
what was easily the largest fuel switching programme in the world. It
required a massive investment and it works. In the process the subsidy per
MJ delivered into the pot was reduced. Reading the papers we find that the
allocation for fuel subsidies of all kinds was not enough to cover the
number of gigaJoules sold (if you view if from an energy carrier
perspective). That is not a direct threat to the LPG subsidy, but it is
something to consider. Not everything can be subsidised so the policy makers
have to choose.  

If some of the subsidy were switched to pellet production that could create
a value chain for an alternative biofuel. Because fuel would be sold, not
collected, it has to find a viable space in the market. One way to bring it
in is to make pellets available in places where LPG is not available (some
islands, for example) and to introduce it together with affordable stoves
that cook well enough to be highly desirable. Obviously if it can cook in a
way that people want, it becomes desirable. The portion of cooking that has
been attracting people into spending money on high quality fuel is the
preparation of short fast meals and reheating food.  

In homes that mostly cook with LPG and electricity and charcoal the main use
of wood (sticks) is for heating water. If we were to change the devices that
heat water to be perfect for a new fuel, that might open a channel for
pellets (at the moment here is no significant availability, even in
Yogyakarta). Pellets are produced a couple of hundred kilometers from here
but exported. We have a box of them in the lab for experimentation.

>There are currently massive deforestation due to palm plantation.

That is an important point. I have seen a few times that people collecting
firewood in the remnants of a forest are accused of being 'the problem' when
it was commercial people who caused it.

>...When the straw is converted to pellet, around 10% of mass will be lost.
Thus, from 100 Million tons of rice straw we can get 90 million tons
pellets. Assuming that each house hold needs only 1,5 kg pellet daily,  the
pellet will suffice for 164 millions house holds.

Do you have samples of the product? Do you think we can get some from
Cambodia or Vietnam? Maybe Marc knows. What we need to know is the heat
content (LHV) and the moisture content. It would be helpful to know the
moisture absorption rate when exposed to the local conditions.

>All we have to do is introducing the change. We have to make the people
aware that they can not rely at all to log woods as well as to subsidized
LPG and kerosene.

Quite right.  Very good points. Thank you.

Regards

Crispin

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