[Stoves] plant physiology-tsw reply
Tadeusz S. Wysocki Jr.
ursted48 at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 2 09:27:24 CST 2013
Hello Francis,
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
Please see the following discussion.
You have the knowledge and skills to run internal combustion engines( generators, cars, trucks, buses, etc. ) on wood gases. Your childhood in post war Japan had to resort to wood power to fuel their buses.
Rural areas in China still uses this technology, and this could be adapted to Haiti.
The" Gambian corn" seeds that you sent me produced edible corn cobs, and a lot of biomass.
What impressed me was its drought resistance, and deep root system, and the several layer of "buttress" roots that would stabilize even dessert sand.
I have able to convert wood chips into humus in less than a year using soil fungus.
This in combination with horticultural charcoal allowed me to grow potatoes and tomatoes in blighted soil.
It may be possible to have a combination of plants tailored for Haiti, that could produce biochar, fuel pellets, food while controlling erosion.
Best regards,
Ted.
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2013 16:50:00 -0500
From: lhelferty at sympatico.ca
To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Stoves] plant physiology
Michael,
Wow! That is just amazing! I am just so very glad that you
have been able to take so much wisdom from the "collective body"
of knowledge about 'sustainable cropping' for bioenergy, biochar
and soil sustainability. (It is also wonderful to read about your
focus on soils -- and Vetiver grass [Chrysopogon
zizanioides].)
I, for one, am completely onside with what you are attempting to
do in Haiti -- and would be very willing to assist you in whatever
way I can to help make what you have described a reality ~ for I
believe that this agro-ecological 'systems approach'
[permaculture] would not only be relevant to Haiti, but could and
should also be very relevant to so many other places around
the world. (Wherever Vetiver grows.)
[Note: I have also recently plugged into the global 'Vetiver
Network', and am learning more about the amazing potential for
these grasses to become sustainable bioenergy feedstocks.]
If there is any way that I might be able to assist in helping
with the development of some of this "portable machinery" (the
pyrolitic downdraft gasifiers that can run portable generators)
for producing electricity and other useful products ~ including
the harvesting and pellet machines themselves... these are the
type of small, integrated systems that I would very much wish to
support [in terms of testing, training and deployment] ~ not only
in Haiti, but anywhere else around the world where these systems
may be applicable. [i.e. the rest of the Caribbean and probably
many other Small Island Developing States in the Pacific ~
South-East Asia and, in fact, probably in many/most other
countries of the so-called "Global South".]
Regards,
Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
Principal, Biochar Consulting (Canada)
www.biochar-consulting.ca
48 Suncrest Blvd, Thornhill, ON, Canada
905-707-8754
CELL: 647-886-8754
Skype: lloyd.helferty
Steering Committee coordinator
Canadian Biochar Initiative (CBI)
President, Co-founder & CBI Liaison, Biochar-Ontario
National Office, Canadian Carbon Farming Initiative (CCFI)
Organizing team member, 2013 N/A Biochar Symposium:
www.carbon-negative.us/symposium
Member of the Don Watershed Regeneration Council (DWRC)
Manager, Biochar Offsets Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2446475
Advisory Committee Member, IBI
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1404717
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42237506675
http://groups.google.com/group/biochar-ontario
http://www.meetup.com/biocharontario/
http://www.biocharontario.ca
www.biochar.ca
"Producing twice as much food with diminishing resources, without further loss of natural habitats and biodiversity and in a changing climate may be the greatest challenge facing humanity."
- Lloyd Helferty
On 2013-12-01 12:01 PM, Michael Mahowald wrote:
Dear All,
Very good and needed discussion,
This is the most important thing we are currently looking
for at Haiti Reconstruction Intl.
We have discussed and planed using fast growing nitrogen
fixing trees in hedgerows on mountainsides for trimming and
getting fuel wood for cooking stoves. But we now believe
their need is greater and with the millions that need it we
have to use pellets nationwide.
We know the greatest problem in Haiti and most of the world
is erosion and lack of good top soil especially on hilly
terrain. We also know vetiver grass is the best plant to not
only stop erosion but it can replenish the soil with the
terraces it makes when planted correctly.
Vetiver has the highest photosynthetic activity of any
plant according to Dr. Massimo Maffei of the University of
Turin Italy. Other plants may produce more tons per acre
total weight but contain 50% more moisture. Vetiver hay when
dried can produce 70 to 80 tons per hectare of cellulosic
biomass.
This grass with 3 meter roots can be trimmed twice a year without hurting its terrace
building ability. Leaves when dried are turned into fuel
pellets without any detriment to the plants to stop
erosion. Once the terraces are established moisture is
retained and gardens can be planted behind the vetiver.
Haiti's mountainous terrain needs so much vetiver they
can produce millions of pounds of pellets a year.
The miraculous TLUD will turn grass into gas that burns clean,
(save lives of those who cook with it) and leaves the
carbon to put back into the soil behind the hedgerows to enhance the soil. This will also clean the atmosphere
and reverse effects on global warming!
Our goal is to make pellets cheap enough not only for
TLUD cook stoves. We feel in order to do this we must
perfect pyrolitic downdraft gasifiers with low tar levels that can run portable generators. We need portable
electricity and machinery where the grass is cut to shred,
grind, form into pellets and seal them in plastic bags. These clean bags of pellets
can be sold in markets by the same street venders who
currently sell dirty charcoal. Those who cut trees to
make charcoal, can now make a living. planting, cutting
and making vetiver pellets.
This perfect circle of permaculture design and its
byproduct of hedgerows that create their own terraces.
These terraces will create humus as they collect leaves and
debris. Humus and biochar will hold moisture and
microorganisms. Vetiver can also be used for composting,
and toilets will stop the spread of cholera, hedgerows
stopping erosion keep anthrax spores buried deep preventing
epidemics! Fruit trees will once again grow on
mountainsides. Gardens can be planted and food will grow so
bountifully they will be exporting it. Eventually there
will be enough vetiver to run generators for small towns to
process food for export.
No one man our group can accomplish everything, but I know
this is all possible with more help.
I am hoping any of you may want to help us, we need to find
universities and groups from every organization to chip in.
Please join us at HRI website(click on this Haiti Reconstruction International )
Michael E. Mahowald
President
Haiti
Reconstruction International
952-220-6814
From: cookswelljikos
To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 17:11:37 -0800
Subject: Re: [Stoves] plant physiology
Dear Bob,
From personal experience most
rural Kenyan's I have met are little concerned with
outsiders expectations of how they should manage
their natural resources and landscapes. As it is
today, a large part woodfuel in Kenya (both
commercial and domestic) is coming from farm forests
or Trust land since the Govt. bans on harvesting
plantations in the 1990's. (please see http://www.inforse.org/Case/Case-Kenya-Afforestation.php3 and http://www.acts.or.ke/dmdocuments/Acacia%20Pocketbook%20low%20res.pdf and
also http://worldagroforestry.org/newsroom/media_coverage/agroforestry-can-meet-charcoal-demand-kenya and
also http://rael.berkeley.edu/bailis_phd
for some recent studies).
Tree's can be planted during
the rainy season to minimize need for watering and
can be grown as alley-crops or fence line windbreaks
etc. and thus not overly compete for arable land.
My interest in this is from my
understanding that by designing, manufacturing and
selling cookstoves, ovens and kilns that make it
easier and cheaper for people to burn trees, I have
very strong vested interests and a responsibility to
advocate and encourage positive woodfuel security
measures. I know not everyone of my customers will
be able to take part in the ''seed-to-ash'' cycle
(please see below), but I am always thrilled when
the early adapters do. And if we can help subsidize
the cost of fuel for our customers, they hopefully
can use the money saved to buy another model of
stove from us.
Back to my question of the possible discussion of
fuels at the ETHOS conference, is this something
that is of interest to any of you?
The more I read about ETHOS
the more I want to come to learn more! I have been
sending quite a few stoves to the USA from Nbi. and
I would love to meet some customers and do some
M&E on how our North American clients use our
jikos.
Thanks and any thoughts,
critics and comments any of you have is always very
instructive to me.
Teddy
Cookswell Jikos
www.cookswell.co.ke
www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos
www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com
Mobile: +254 700 380
009
Mobile: +254 700 905 913
P.O. Box 1433, Nairobi
00606, Kenya
-----
On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 6:52
AM, <rbtvl>
wrote:
thanks
Arnand
I
hope to come to Ethos but might be in Tanzania
working.
do
you have any data on how much fuel you can
grow at some maximum rate?
My
concern is that we can't expect poor rural
people to focus their water gathering energies
and land use on firewood production. Of
course, if they can burn dried up corn plants
and stuff like that it is all to the good.
integrating growth of fuel and food is always
a good idea.
bob
-----Original
Message-----
From: Anand Karve
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Fri, Nov 29, 2013 10:40 pm
Subject: Re: [Stoves] ETHOS program growing
firewood
Dear
Bob Lange and Stovers,
I
am a plant physiologist. I won't mind
attending Ethos Meeting if somebody pays
me my air fare and local expenses.
The
high energy in seeds and tubers that you
mention has nothing to do with the
physical calorific value of these
substances. They have a high content of
digestible matter so that the energy
becomes available to you, when you eat
them. Burning sugar, starch, cellulose or
lignin would release about the same
quantity of energy per unit weight.
Because cellulose and lignin are not
digestible to humans, the straw and stover
from crop plants, constituting about 60 to
70% of the total biomass, is available to
the farmer to be used as fuel. It must
however be processed to increase its
energy density to resemble that of wood.
Yours
A.D.Karve
On
Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 5:09 PM, <rbtvl> wrote:
I
think we should invite a plant
physiologist to come to ETHOS to explain
why we should not focus on getting
people to grow their own fuel. Plants
are living things. In the first place
they are not very efficient at all in
catching the energy in sun light. But
what they do catch they put mostly into
metabolism and reproduction. Like us
animals. That is why we eat seeds.
They are loaded with energy that the
plant put there for their young to use
until the little ones can
photosynthesize for themselves.
Mammals use the mother's milk Plants
use their seeds. (Some animals, not
mammals, use eggs for reproduction. So
we eat eggs.)
If you
are rural and poor and have a little
land and sufficient water, you will
almost certainly want to grow food
itself rather than fire wood.
no? Fire wood is very demanding of land
area. You can be clever and minimize
it. This species that species. but it
is land expensive. Because the part of
the plant you burn for fuel is not
important to the plant, except to
support its leaves. so the plant puts
minimal energy there.
If
growing fuel wood is going to be taken
seriously, it should be a government
task. Local or national government.
Centralize it. Do it big and well on
land that individual families don't need
to grow food itself. do it on land that
is difficult to use for other things.
On the sides of hills. someplace
useless. someplace rocky. Make it a
campaign in the Global Alliance's
"enabling environment".
Funny,
but the problem is that people cook so
much. What we need are more species of
plants and animals that produce parts
that we could find nourishing and tasty
and desirable without cooking at all.
Damn it. Why do we have to heat up
food so much? Maybe soak the food in
some liquid like fruit juice or spices
some natural acid for all day and then
serve it. I know cooking has a very
significant role in make food culturally
and physiologically acceptable. But If
only we could find more foods that were
good for us, culturally and
physiologically, but eaten raw. That
would be real stove progress. I
personally like to eat almost all
vegetables raw. even beans and corn.
I don't know if I am throwing away a lot
of their nutrition, though.
Bob
Lange Maasai stoves and solar.
<snip>
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