[Stoves] Vetiver grass-pellets Re: The wood and char and fuel "debate"

Wed Feb 26 11:00:09 CST 2014

Mike,

It is great to see your progress!!!

My quick look at the sites you named did not reveal the answer to these 
questions:

A.  Have you successfully make pellets from vetiver grass, and if so, 
what are the energy characteristics?

B.   Where are vetiver grass pellets being made?    And how can I obtain 
5 to 10 kg?

When I have tested some pellets and know the costs, etc, I will be a 
major advocate of growing vetiver grass.

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 2/26/2014 10:36 AM, Michael Mahowald wrote:
> You are absolutely correct Paul !
>
> Deforestation happens all over the world with the lack of fire wood.
>
> There simply is not enough dry sources of trees or waste from them 
> even for TLUD's to keep even poor consumers interested in them.
>
> We know vetiver grass has the highest photosynthetic activity of any 
> plant, making it the most renewable energy source on the planet.   We 
> just have to densify the grass into pellets at a cost that people can 
> afford.  The only way we can do this is to eliminate the cost of 
> diesel fuel to run the generator to make the pellets.
>
> We are planning on using a downdraft gasifier for gas to accomplish 
> this.  We just have to perfect this process and size it for a portable 
> pelleting plant that can be taken to the fields they grow it.
>
> When we perfect this it will be capable to work everywhere in the 
> world that needs clean cook stoves.
>
> If you want to see what we are doing check out
>
> http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/page/grass-energy
>
> and http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/page/sustainable-path-on-how-to
>
>
> Michael E. Mahowald
> President
> Haiti Reconstruction International <http://haitireconstruction.ning.com/>
> 952-220-6814
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 20:43:31 -0600
> From: psanders at ilstu.edu
> To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org; biochar at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Stoves] The wood and char and fuel "debate" (was a long time 
> ago called Re: Request for technology proposals - Clean Stove 
> Initiative, Indonesia)
>
> Dear Crispin, Ron and all,
>
> It is interesting reading the back and forth between Ron and 
> Crispin.   I emphasize two paragraphs from Crispin,
>
> On 2/24/2014 10:10 AM, Crispin Pembert-Pigott wrote:
>
>     There is no dispute between us whatsoever as to the energy
>     consumption: the energy remaining in the char represents energy
>     not liberated from the fuel consumed.
>
>     The important question is not what we want, but what the customer
>     of the test result wants. They are not asking how much energy was
>     used when cooking, they asked how much fuel was consumed. The
>     answer is of course different if there is char remaining and that
>     char is not 'fuel' to the same stove for the next fire.
>
> For the vast majority of "customers" (including governments that want 
> to reduce or reverse deforestation), the important question is "how 
> much wood is burned." The interests are highly related to WOOD, 
> specifically related to TREES, not even counting sawdust that goes 
> into pellets.
>
> So, because TLUD stoves are VERY GOOD at burning NON-wood biomass, the 
> wood saved can be 100%.   And we still get the char.
>
> Concerning fuel and wood and non-wood and char and other such 
> measurements, the real problems can come from rankings and Tiers and o 
> ther reports that could give excellent stoves some poor results 
> because the "authorities" are defining fuel as being exclusively wood, 
> as in trees and woodlands that need to be protected.
>
> If we could get past that "imposed intellectual construct" of fuel 
> being wood, we could make more progress about some types of biomass 
> stoves being even better than good for the environment.
>
> Rest assured that the advocates of alcohol and kerosene and other 
> NON-biomass fuels are pointing out that their stoves help minimize 
> deforestation/enviromental degradation.
>
> Biomass that is NOT WOOD needs to be recognized as being favorable for 
> saving trees, and credit given to the stoves that can use those 
> non-wood biomass fuels.
>
> AND that recognition and credit needs to be EXPLICITLY STATED IN THE 
> REPORTS ABOUT FUEL CONSUMPTION.
>
> In some ways, this is all just another discussion about why the 
> reported results of any stove testing need much explanation (which is 
> usually not provided) and why the results are so easy to ignore as 
> being poorly related to the realities of people and their stoves and 
> their fuels.
>
> I hope we can do better in the future.
>
> Paul        (still another week to go on my vacation trip to Brazil, 
> so I probably will not be sending replies.)
> Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
> Email:psanders at ilstu.edu  <mailto:psanders at ilstu.edu>    
> Skype: paultlud      Phone: +1-309-452-7072
> Website:www.drtlud.com  <http://www.drtlud.com>
>
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