[Stoves] planting trees ( the way I'd do it 1, 000, 000, 000 years from n...

[Carefreeland at aol.com]

Teddy, 
    I have read the article provided and found your  production levels with 
native acacia to be quite amazing. Correct me if I am  wrong. After doing 
some math with your numbers, am I  correct?  1 kg = 2.2 lbs,  1 short ton = 
2000 lbs. Divide  acerage harvets production number by 6 years to get result. 
            You are  producing 2.2 short tons per acre/ per year of 
charcoal. 
    Reversing the equation. 2.2 tons charcoal at 30%  conversion rate = 7.3 
tons of acacia produced per acre, per year, in 6 harvest  cycle. 
    Is this correct? 
     Wow.  Here in Ohio USA we only figure on  1-2 tons wood per acre, per 
year, with typical hardwood scrub overgrowth  harvested for fireplace logs 
maybe every 20- 30 years. 
    I want to see what happens when we start to coppice  black locust like 
you do. My question is,will our numbers be as good? 
    If we use your numbers, a blast furance using 1000  tons of charcoal 
per day ( to use a round number)  would need 165,000 acres  in charcoal 
production to keep up with demand. Still a lot of acerage to smelt  maybe 1000 
tons of iron per day. When that production is first used as building  lumber, 
and then recycled into fuel, it does not seem so intimidating. In that  case 
the tranmsportation and harvesting costs are already paid for with the  
first life cycle of the wood.  
    A study done 10 years ago, stated that we burry  1,000,000 tons of wood 
per year in landfills in only a 3 county area here around  Dayton, Ohio.  
That wood, converted to charcoal at 30% conversion rate,  would yield 300,000 
tons of charcoal per year, Almost the same amount of  production figured 
above. Some fuel for thought. 
    Keep up the great work. 
    
    Dan Dimiduk 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On Thu,  Nov 14, 2013 at 9:43 PM, Cookswell Jikos 
<_cookswelljikos at gmail.com_ (mailto:cookswelljikos at gmail.com) > wrote:


 
OK.... as discouraging as  the facts may be, the facts are reality, and 
they must be dealt with to  avoid future problems.
1: Can different species be  grown, that have higher Mean Annual Increments 
of growth?

Yes - at least in East African drylands  - the traditional colonial methods 
of silviculture were focused on high land  pine and cypress plantations not 
indigenous dry land  adapted trees. (which now provides the feedstock for 
more of Kenyas  charcoal) Since 1994 we have been experimenting with 
different dryland  planting and agronomic techniques (please see 
http://www.acts.or.ke/dmdocuments/PROJECT_REPORTS/PISCES_Sustainable_Charcoal.pdf  pg.  7) and 
most of our findings so far have led us to belive that endimic tree  species 
managed in a holistic and permacutrual manner produce coppiced  'branch' 
charcoal with an excellent life cycle analysis  profile. 





 
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