[Stoves] on ocean acidification

Fri Jul 5 19:31:28 CDT 2013

 A stove that makes both syngas and biochar can be just as clean-burning as
any other type of stove. Nothing is sacrificed in terms of human health if
a stove makes biochar. But when biochar is made, there is a benefit that
goes far beyond human health: CO2 is lock away in the soil for a very long
time, and does not make its way into the air or oceans. Also we have
demonstrated in over 20 experiments in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, how
biochar greatly enhances plant growth, while reducing costly inputs of
fertilizer and water in attaining similar levels of growth.

The beautiful lake, which lies right at the center of the city of Dalat
where I live, is always heavily polluted with agricultural run off. Huge
areas of the lake are covered from time to time with dead fish. If biochar
and compost were added to the soil surrounding this lake, most of this
run-off could be curtailed. The Gulf of Mexico has a huge dead zone, mostly
caused by agricultural run-off. See:
http://science.time.com/2013/06/19/this-years-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-could-be-the-biggest-on-record/?xid=newsletter-asia-weekly

*The major factor driving the size of the dead zone—beyond changing
flooding patterns—is the use and overuse of fertilizers in America’s rich
Midwestern corn belt. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that 153,000
metric tons of nutrients flowed down the swollen Mississippi and
Atchafalaya rivers during May—a 16% increase over the nutrient load average
seen during the past 34 years. And as James Greiff of Bloomberg points out
in a recent piece<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-06-14/gulf-of-mexico-s-extinction-by-ethanol.html>,
those nutrients are used disproportionately to feed one particular crop:
corn. What’s more, 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is devoted to making
ethanol, which fuel companies must blend with gasoline under a
congressional mandate. The Gulf dead zone is yet another reason for
Congress to kill that mandate.*

A TLUD that makes biochar and then burns it is not ideal for two reasons:
1) the burning of the biochar takes place at a considerable distance from
the pot and is inefficient, and 2) there is no biochar that gets
incorporated into the soil.

Once again, when we go about designing TLUDs, if possible, we should
utilize waste biomass, not fossil fuels, and we should make biochar and
incorporate it into the soil. Our focus should not be exclusively on human
health. If poor people could afford fossil fuel gas, the health issue would
be fully addressed. Does this mean that we would no longer have to design
stoves for them?

And finally, should we not be using in our own kitchens the stoves that we
design? Why is it OK for us to go on using fossil fuels to cook our food?
Why do we conveniently shift the burden of sustainability onto poor people?

Thanks.
Paul Olivier

On Sat, Jul 6, 2013 at 3:38 AM, Dean Still <deankstill at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> In recent discussions making stoves that reduce climate change as well as
> health problems has been a focus.  I'm not an expert but to me that means
> investigating how stoves can burn as cleanly as possible. Making as close
> to zero amounts of CO and PM while cooking food as effectively as possible:
> making cooks happy as well. If the stove makes charcoal that will be buried
> it should be super clean when burning/cooking.
>
> We're getting closer. Stoves with chimneys can help a lot to protect
> health as long as the outside air stays below WHO guidelines but adding
> climate change means that we want to see only carbon neutral CO2 coming out
> of the chimney.
>
> I think that in the next few years biomass stoves that get close to this
> degree of clean burning will be for sale, available in the millions and at
> market prices. It's great that the Global Alliance is pushing this '
> technological revolution'. And as a concerned Earthling, I want to
> sincerely thank all of the inventors and all concerned who are helping the
> plants and animals, the humans, on our planet.
>
> Thanks to Jacob, Tom, N. Nurhuda, Ron, Fred, Peter, Ben, Paul, Tom, Larry,
> Ranyee, Leslie, John, Crispin, and everyone.
>
> THANK YOU!!!,
>
> Dean
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 10:29 AM, Frank Shields <frank at compostlab.com>wrote:
>
>> This is a very good topic and related to Stoves to the point of noting the
>> difference of a measure of Biochar pH value and alkalinity value. The pH
>> is
>> really not that important as many think it is. It's the alkalinity that is
>> important. Having a water with a pH of 8.3 takes little acid to lower the
>> pH
>> but toss in a chunk of lime and the pH is still 8.3 but you will need to
>> add
>> acid until all the lime is dissolved before the pH goes down. So pH is
>> just
>> a reading. Alkalinity (or neutralizing value) is a measure of the amount
>> of
>> buffering holding that pH. We report this as CaCO3 equivalent units so it
>> can be compared to adding limestone to a soil. We boil a Biochar sample in
>> 100 mls of 0.5N HCl to dissolve all the carbonates and oxides in the
>> sample
>> then back titrate using NaOH to determine the amount buffering (or
>> neutralizing value) the sample has.  Much more useful.
>>
>> Frank
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Frank Shields
>>
>> BioChar Division
>> Control Laboratories, Inc.
>> 42 Hangar Way
>> Watsonville, CE  95076
>>
>> (831) 724-5422 tel
>> (81) 724-3188 fax
>> frank at biocharlab.com
>> www.controllabs.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf
>> Of
>> ajheggie at gmail.com
>> Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2013 11:47 PM
>> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
>> Subject: Re: [Stoves] on ocean acidification
>>
>> On Thu, 04 Jul 2013 23:21:20 -0600,Mark Bigland-Pritchard / Low Energy
>> Design Ltd <mark at lowenergydesign.com> wrote:
>>
>> >I wouldn't normally want to post off-topic, but I think it is necessary
>> >that an error be corrected before this thread is put to sleep.
>>
>> Mark I'm happy with your correction explaining pH. As we generally do use
>> pH
>> to denote acidity rather than hydrogen ions I think it is misleading to
>> then
>> say a 30% increase in hydrogen ion activity equates to a 30% change in
>> acidity.
>>
>> I think change in ocean ecology due to this small change in pH is a very
>> serious concern but please all of you take the discussion elsewhere and
>> stick to stove issues.
>>
>> AJH
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Stoves mailing list
>>
>> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
>> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
>>
>> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>>
>> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists
>> .org<http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org>
>>
>> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
>> http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Stoves mailing list
>>
>> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
>> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
>>
>> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>>
>> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
>>
>> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
>> http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
>
>
>

-- 
Paul A. Olivier PhD
26/5 Phu Dong Thien Vuong
Dalat
Vietnam

Louisiana telephone: 1-337-447-4124 (rings Vietnam)
Mobile: 090-694-1573 (in Vietnam)
Skype address: Xpolivier
http://www.esrla.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20130706/6c8ff0d1/attachment.html>