[Stoves] Advancement of "better" stoves

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Paul

 

This is exactly the sort of information that has been missing from the
public space. As far as I have been able to find it.  It has not been for a
lack of asking, of course. It is the quantification of application rates
that has been the subject of so many tests as is happening now with the IBI
initiatives.

 

When sitting at a table where there is $10m being discussed, there is a need
for substantiation of claims. The coffee bean situation sounds ideal. 

 

Regards

Crispin

 

 

 

See comment below.

 

On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
<crispinpigott at gmail.com <mailto:crispinpigott at gmail.com> > wrote:

Dear Art

 

I appreciate the effort you put into the project and the report. One of the
things that has been difficult to estimate is the time it would take to
generate an 'improved garden' (or farm) using char from the area upon which
the garden sits. The point is that to do something at scale, on the scale of
hundreds of square miles, would mean generating the char on that same land. 

 

Crispin,

There are many crops that are grown where biochar does not have to be
uniformly distributed over every square cm of farmland in question. In many
cases biochar only has to be incorporated into the soil in a targeted
manner: for example, at the base of the plants being grown. Only a small
amount of biochar is needed per plant. In this case, it would not take long
for a farmer to accumulate the biochar he needs for his crops.

The same logic applies to irrigation. We can waste irrigation water by
flooding an entire field, or we can target water at the base of each plant.

We are teaching farmers to gasify their coffee husks and to apply the
biochar they produce at the base of their coffee trees. The heat generated
from the burning of the syngas can be used to dry coffee cherries and
parchment beans. It can even be used to roast coffee beans. I am now
designing a coffee drying kiln that is powered by a single 150 gasifier. I
have also designed a small coffee roaster that is powered by the same
gasifier.

If all of the coffee husks from a given field of coffee trees were gasified,
and if all of the biochar produced were applied at the base of the plants in
this field, it would not take very long (perhaps, a year or two) to supply
each coffee plant with the biochar it needs. After this, the farmer can
start to sell biochar.

 

Paul Olivier

 

 

If you have some feedback from real gardens it will communicate a lot. The
viability of cooking while making char pivots on two things: the conversion
of fuel to char without increasing the raw fuel demand, and the rate of
positive return on char placed in the soil. The data that addresses these
issues is of great interest to me.

 

>We are getting back two "complaints": lack of a longevity and a better
multiple pot cook-top option. 

 

That is valuable marketing information. 

 

>These stoves will allow us to gain entry into the much larger urban and
peri-urban markets where people are sliding back down the "fuel ladder" due
to rising energy costs.

 

We have noticed that in Indonesia there is a sensitivity to LPG fuel cost.
It is rises slightly a percentage of people go to wood 100% instead of 40%.
The income group they are in is not the bottom of the pyramid, just low.

 

Regards

Crispin

  

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