[Stoves] Fourth report from Phnom Penh (both stoves and biochar focus)

Thu Mar 21 08:29:12 CDT 2013

Hi all 

This was a truncated day - but started early. 

1. Breakfast for second time with two from Ethiopia (where I have spent considerable time) 

2. 8:00 - 9:30 in breakout session on stoves in China. Tami Bond was first speaker - somewhat repeating an earlier plenary alkon black carbon - with emphasis this time on climate and China. Other speakers emphasizing more health aspect. I really liked last speaker (Yeoguong Zhou of China Agricultural University) who noted 11 ways that errors (some quite significant) can come into stove testing. 

3. 10- 5:00 (in our case till 2:00 - allowing some catchup time) tours to 4-5 different places. We went in four 12-person vans to two somewhat coupled places. The first making charcoal briquettes; the second a stove testing facility (one of 6-8 set up by GACC around the world, using approaches (and hardware) developed by Aprovecho). The latter still operated by a French NGO called GERES.. The first is now private but is an offshoot of GERES work. 

4. From about 4:30 to 6:00 (probably went longer), we wandered around a parking lot with about 15-20 different stove operations. Two were solar, a few fossil fuel (alcohol, propane or LPG) and the rest about evenly split between "rockets" and T-LUDs. This is a much larger showing- for TLUDS than represented in the talks and standards/testing,etc. I took quite a few photos. One surprise was a thermoelectric generator unit part of a TLUD with a $100 price tag.- one designed for car batteries (14.5 volts). 

5. 6:00 to 7:30 - a reception (free beer, wine and peanuts) to listen to an industry sales pitch for LPG. Cleverly done; bullding mainly on the health benefits of LPG. Attendance relatively low (40?). 

7. Tomorrow AM another biochar subgroup meeting (700 to 8:00 AM) 

Ron 

----- Original Message -----
From: rongretlarson at comcast.net 
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Cc: Ruben at ace.co.ls, sonta at emerging.se, dylanmontreal at gmail.com, adrian at rocketworks.org, Paul at burndesignlab.com, deanstll at gmail.com, "Priyadarshini Karve" <pkarve at arti-india.org>, "biochar" <biochar at yahoogroups.com> 
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 2:36:48 AM 
Subject: [biochar] Third report from Phnom Penh (both stoves and biochar focus) 

Hi again 

This report being written on the fourth day (Thursday) about the third day (Wednesday). 

1. Eighteen of us who were interested in biochar met from 7 to 8:30. About half new to biochar and TLUDs. Anyone interested in these names please send me a note. 

2. Plenary from 8:30 to 10:00 mostly involved government officials - especially interesting was hearing from persons representing Philips and GIZ. 

3. 10:30 to 12:00 I missed - my having computer problems. Anyone else able to report? 

4. 12:30 to 2:00 A lunch featuring 4 world famous chefs - seving as "ambassadors" for GACC. Lead chef was Jose Andres from US - very inspirational speaker.- a good choice (like Julia Roberts - who has not been present). This s a good place to say the GACC organizers have done an excellent job with conference details. 

5. 2:00 to 3:30 Out of usual 5 choices, I went to one on the standards being developed through (mainly) ISO and (US) ANSI. Mostly a description of the process, which is just getting underway. Lots on this at GACC site.. Briefly also went to session where Priya Karve was speaking on technology selection. I think all slide presentations will soon be up on GACC site. Full agenda is there now. 

6. 4:00 to 5:30 - I chose to go to session on forthcoming M&E (Monitoring and Evaluation). Good talks by a) Christoph Messiinger of GIZ (Germain doing best work in the stove area for many years) and Michael Sage from (US) CDC on the very beginning efforts to develop a GACC methodology. This is to fill out the overall goal of 100 million new improved stoves by 2020. Kenya's goal is 7 million. 

7. 6:30 to 8:00 (and much later) An awards banquet and poster session. I was surprised by the large number of posters. Not sure how - but I think GACC paid for all and they were all easy to read. Many were stove suppliers. Priya Karve had one for Samuchit (not ARTI). The key award was given to Prof. Kirk Smith. He noted that he had close call 43 (?) years ago in leaving Phnom Penh as Pol Pot terror was just beginning. Cambodia now much different. Everyone very friendly. 
I had interesting long discussion with a developer from LBL with a solid oxide fuel cell msutable to be put directly in stove flame (need 600-900 oC). Cost expected to be about $15 to $20 for about 5 watts. Company name Point Source Power (www.pointsourcepower.com) represented by Pres./CEO Craig Jacobson of Alameda, CA. On the market soon - saw several products.(cell phone rechargers, flashlights, etc). The key disposable parts are compressed charcoal "chips" of about 2 sq in size. 

End of day 3 report. 

----- Original Message -----
From: rongretlarson at comcast.net 
To: "Discussion of biomass" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>, "biochar" <biochar at yahoogroups.com> 
Cc: Ruben at ace.co.ls, sonta at emerging.se, dylanmontreal at gmail.com, adrian at rocketworks.org, Paul at burndesignlab.com, deanstll at gmail.com, "Priyadarshini Karve" <pkarve at arti-india.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 10:39:12 AM 
Subject: [Stoves] Second report from Phnom Penh 

Hi again all (adding Dean Still) 

1. Very good opening plenary with lead off by UC Berkeley Prof Kirk Smith - the most well known world expert in stove health topics (Household Air Pollution (HAP) now #4 killer - about 4 million per year. Emphasized difficulty of making changes. He was followed by U Illinois professor Tami Bond, who was the main speaker at the last Ethos conference and who has also done a lot of stove testing. 

2. I then attended a breakout session chaired by Christa Roth of GIZ. She also was at last ETHOS meeting and has great summary book on char-making and gasifier stoves. Great talk by Paul Means of Burn Lab (Seattle) on the (mostly transportation) reasons NOT to work with charcoal made in remote areas. 

3. I missed the next plenary on major country GACC programs, but attended a well-done breakout survey of stove activities in China. 
Here Dean Still raved about the capabilities of the Chinese stove community. In particular the Stove Tec main Chinese partner was there (Mr. Chen or Shen). Apparently there is little activity with char-making stoves (I will try to get Dean's view on that). But at the same Chinese meeting today, I met several groups that are working in China on char-making stoves. GACC might have a list of Chinese stove manufacturers. 
Talked with several Chinese forestry experts (and China is doing quite well in this area).. 

4. Tonight was the main banquet - during most of which we were entertained by 25-30 young Cambodian folk dancers/musicians.. 

5. Afterwards, I visited the small display area of stoves - maybe 20 in all and maybe 5 were char making. Gustavo Pena of El Salvador showed me a char-making stove of his own design with lots of "attachments" (including an oven) [couldn't find a website]. Also saw several stoves being sold in China by Dylan Maxwell of Novotera and Planetstove. More coming on this. 

Again I hope others will jump in. 

Ron 

----- Original Message -----
From: rongretlarson at comcast.net 
To: "Discussion of biomass" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>, "biochar" <biochar at yahoogroups.com> 
Cc: "Priyadarshini Karve" <pkarve at arti-india.org>, ",\"paul anderson" <psanders at ilstu.edu>, "Crispin Pemberton-Pigott" <crispinpigott at gmail.com>, Ruben at ace.co.ls, adrian at rocketworks.org, sonta at emerging.se 
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2013 8:19:14 AM 
Subject: First report from Phnom Penh 

Hi to two lists (with 6 ccs) 

1. This written at end of "first" day of conference. Actually the official first GACC day is tomorrow, but today was also the second day of pre-conference activities.. List members active on these two lists, here (and shown on the "to" list), who I hope will add more are Priya Karve, Paul Anderson and Crispin Pemberton-Piggott. I missed the first day - Sunday - returning from Siem Reap - home of Angkor Wat. This is definitely the most impressive world heritage site I have seen or could imagine. Uniformly impressed by the Cambodian people. 

2. My overall impression is that very few attendees know much about biochar nor char-making stoves. Of course most everyone knows something about stoves - although I would guess that fewer than half have been involved for more than a year or two Heard tonight that there are 650 registrants. Great conference facilities; no conference registration fee and fair number of freebie meals, coffee-break treats etc. 

3. My first surprise char-making stove encounter was with Sonta Kauti, a Zambian with "Emerging Cooking Solutions" - whose stove can be seen at www.emerging.se. I have not yet seen the actual stove, nor yet know its pricing - but plan more talks with Sonta 

4. Next was a short encounter with Ruben Walker of "African Clean Energy" (see http://www.ace.co.ls/), now manufacturing in Lesotho the "Philips" fan stove developed by Paul van der Sluis (PvdS). This has been identified as having the best performance characteristics so far tested. This was my first chance to hold one - and it looks exceptionally well made. A surprise was the set of 10 or 12 (?) flat ceramic liner pieces for the interior (maybe 1 cm thick??). Presumably long life time - being non-metal. Ruben said one could hold the outside of the stove after an hour of cooking -possible because there are four concentric metal cylinders (three concentric air gaps). This stove is not char making - but I remember hearing that PvdS regularly operates it as a charcoal-maker. Cost in neighborhood of $70. 

5. Later, at this evening's reception, Mr. Adrian Padt of "Rocket Works" introduced himself (see http://www.rocketworks.org/ - including photo of Adrian). This is the stove with the interesting heavy wire mesh exterior that we discussed a few months ago - also can be held. This also looked exceptionally well made and rugged. Cost in the neighborhood of $50. In addition to the version seen at the site, they are now adding a door to better control excess air. 

6. I attended a day-long session put on by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.- the emphasis was on country organizations in this region. Crispin was on what I thought the best panel - on testing, etc. This is to hope that Priya, Paul, and Crispin (and anyone else from these lists here in Phnom Penh) will also add their early summary thoughts. 

Any questions I/we can try to answer? 

Ron 

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