[Stoves] Wood/charcoal price in Cambodia

Mon Oct 7 00:20:13 CDT 2013

Dear Stovers,

I am a (currently unemployed) American consultant married to a lovely
Cambodian women.  We have both worked in the NGO world for a number of years
in rural development, HIV and health, urban poverty issues and slum
improvement projects, parenting skills, etc., but not much in agricultural. 

Together we have a small mango orchard in Prey Vieng province along the
Mekong river (about 45 kms from Phnom Penh) with about 200, one-year old
mango trees planted.  The land was actually built up with local clay to get
the trees' leafy area above the normal annual flood level.  Trees are on
approx 4-6m spacing.  We are advised by locals to inner crop papayas on
1-1.5m spacing for a quick cash crop.  Depending on what floods do for the
next year or two, we may get only 10 months growing time from the papayas,
or we my get 2-3 years.  However I think the soil (mostly heavy clay and
some reddish top soil) is pretty poor and lacks good drainage for papayas.
I would like to try adding bio-char mixed with compost and cow manure to
improve the soil structure, bio-activity and drainage.  We hope to plant
around 4000 papaya seedling before the end of the year (the flood waters are
just starting to recede).  

Can you point me to a good design for a small-farm scale biochar retort,
keeping in mind that I have good mechanical and fabrication skills, but very
little cash at the moment?  

By the way, there is some large bamboo (3-4inch variety) and some smaller
types grown in the village. Also, mimosa plant is a major problem here.
Could the bent/broken bamboo and mimosa be used for biochar? 

Best regards,

Robert
Prey Tasor Village
Prey Vieng, Cambodia

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Anderson [mailto:psanders at ilstu.edu] 
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2013 2:27 AM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Cc: Robert Deutsch; biochar at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Wood/charcoal price in Cambodia

Dear Robert,

To offer you some alternative solutions, we will need some information 
from you.   And we need to  get you into contact with a larger circle of 
people who can assist you.

1.   I am sending this message to the Biochar Listserv that has 
additional people who might help.   You might want to join it.  If I do 
not see your reply to me ALSO reaching me via the Biochar Listserv, I will
repost it to that Listserv.

2.  We need to know more about you, your project, and your resources 
(and needs) to be able to pull off some project we do not yet know.   Do 
not forget to describe your fuel supply.

3.  You probably know this already, but next week 13 - 17 October there is a
major Biochar Symposium being held in Amherst, Massachusetts, 
USA.   I and over 200 others will attend.   Some of them (including me) 
will take very serious your issues of production/obtaining biochar anywhere,
and that includes Cambodia where (I assume) you are living/working.  There
is a whole session on Wednesday afternoon about production of biochar in
"small" quantities, but that can be up to a cubic meter in the amount of the
raw material in one batch.

4.  How much have you studied already about biochar production and 
usage?   Some items about production are at my website www.drtlud.com

I assure you that many of us await your reply.

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype: paultlud      Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 10/6/2013 11:18 AM, Robert Deutsch wrote:
> Dear AJH,
>
> Thanks for the answer, but I need a lot of bio char and I don't really 
> need much cooking or other process heat out there.  What can I do?
>
> Robert-
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On 
> Behalf Of ajheggie at gmail.com
> Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2013 7:31 PM
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Wood/charcoal price in Cambodia
>
> [Default] On Sat, 5 Oct 2013 08:43:06 +0700,Robdeutsch 
> <robdeutsch at online.com.kh> wrote:
>
>> Question for the group: would it be better to make bio-char from 
>> wood, or
> just reheat local charcoal to 450-500 degree?
>
> No contest in my mind, to reheat charcoal (why?) will need energy, 
> making char in a tlud burner whilst the flame heats something...
>
> AJH
>
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