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

Wed Feb 26 15:17:45 CST 2014

Dear Mike

This is great progress and I agree completely with you and Paul about this
matter. I will have to defer comments of substance for a while. Paul, let's
talk about how to get this into mainstream stove projects. It requires doing
some convincing at government policy level.

Mike: from your webpage: "The people in the mountains who have made money
making charcoal will now be paid for selling grass cuttings for pellets."

I think it is worth mentioning that in Haiti it is now legal to grow your
own trees and make charcoal out of them if the price merits the work. There
are listed three ways char can be produced in the legislation, as I recall.
Illegal logging is obviously out of the question however we should not
forget that in several countries where deforestation is a problem, the
stable long term solution it to put a value on trees like any drop and let
people choose how to create income. In Lesotho trees are planted and treated
like any asset.  They are sold individually.  Grasses are perfectly suited
to some places and trees to others - Haiti needing both.  

Rwanda has done a great job on two fronts: first turning charcoal from a
destructive industry into a productive one for farmers and also with respect
to the generation of small scale hydro-electricity. There are now many small
hydro plants in Rwanda, all privately owned and they are making real money.

The lessons are many on the policy level. One of the key people designing
these projects is Robert van der Plas who I see has just been promoted to be
Managing Director of Marge, the consulting company that has done so much to
change the energy situation in Rwanda.

With wise policies and diverse activities, we can turn any country into a
vernal paradise. 

Regards

Crispin

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

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