[Stoves] Charcoal from waste - home cooking or other markets? (Re: Crispin, Anand Karve)

Anand Karve adkarve at gmail.com
Tue Oct 4 23:51:19 CDT 2016


Dear Nikhil,
our charring and briquetting process can easily be scaled up to process
municipal solid waste. In fact, a voluntary group uses it currently to
produce charcoal briquettes from coconut shells that are left with vendors
who sell green coconuts to people who want to drink coconut water. The
group gets theses shells transported free of cost to their work place by
the coconut vendors, because the municipality refused to accept the shells
as garbage. The briquettes are currently used as cooking fuel but we are
trying to find other uses for them. Charcoal generally has a higher
calorific value than mineral coal and one can therefore use it in all
processes, where one normally uses mineral coal. In my city and in villages
around it, the blacksmiths regularly use charcoal to heat any piece of iron
on which they are working.
Yours
A.D.Karve

***
Dr. A.D. Karve

Chairman, Samuchit Enviro Tech Pvt Ltd (www.samuchit.com)

Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)

On Sun, Oct 2, 2016 at 3:23 AM, Nikhil Desai <pienergy2008 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Moderator: I changed the subject line. This is in response to Crispin's
> comment about Anand Karve's work.
> ---------------
>
> Crispin: "That is what is so inspiring about AD Karve?s work on charring
> waste biomass to produce a high quality fuel. He even produced the
> extruder and the Sarai stove to go with it. That is a museum quality
> piece of work - to be studied... "
>
> I take your word for it, but I also had this suspicion a few years ago
> that what Anand Karve was proposing in terms of converting waste biomass
> for charcoal was worth more attention, not primarily as a fuel choice issue
> but as a waste management issue. In dry regions such as much of India, leaf
> and tree waste along with other open biomass waste is a major problem in
> municipal waste management. Why, just driving by Gandhinagar - the capital
> of Gujarat state where I lived - a few months ago I saw huge piles of leaf
> waste in numerous parks that have been created by the state government to
> make the city "green". All those leaves will be burned in the open,
> contributing to air pollution (not reported in peer-reviewed literature so
> it must not exist) that damages biota health here and now. On the other
> hand, such burning will release organic aerosols that supposedly cool the
> atmosphere, so it is most definitely "green" for the "global environment"
> advocates.
>
> Open organic waste - including leaves, tree debris, food waste - is a huge
> headache for local governments. On the other hand, urban trees have
> multiple benefits including air filtering
> <https://www.accessscience.com/content/urban-tree-leaves-remove-fine-particulate-air-pollution/BR0116141>,
> favorable changes in ambient temperatures (thus impacting building energy
> demand; I did some work for Cinncinnati Gas and Electric climate options
> 20+ years ago), and I also happen to like urban forestry, gardening, food
> production (if land, water, and air quality so permit).
>
> A new paradigm of urban/peri-urban biomass production, utilization, and
> waste management needs to emerge, and energy analysts have much to offer.
>
> Unless they leave the field to WHO and EPA.
>
> The question is, do Indian customers care to advance to cleaner charcoal
> or convenient LPG?
>
> As I mentioned in the previous post, the commercial potential may not lie
> in household cooking but in water heating (peri-urban, rural) and
> commercial/institutional cooking and heating (water/space).
>
> ****
>
> Crispin: "But he is promoting charcoal consumption -  very offensive to
> some. Shall we forgive him too? :)"
>
> Asking forgiveness from sinners of cooked science? You must be joking, Mr.
> Pemberton-Pigott.
>
> I note your emoticon, but this is no laughing matter. I think it's time to
> stop blaming direct use of solid fuels for presumed envionmental ills.
>
> It's the process that matters. Converting primary solid fuels into an
> energy service can be "dirty process" or "clean (or cleaner) process."
>
> Extending Kirk Smith et al (AREE 2000 on India) to all processes of solid
> fuel transformation, not just final combustion, and counting all emissions,
> could well show that investments at all steps of the fuel cycle can deliver
> small-scale direct use of solid fuels at a lower emission rates than the
> "traditional" processes (unprocessed solid fuels with relatively
> uncontrolled combustion and no emissions capture or ventilation).
>
> I will send you and Ron an e-mail about solid fuels and "dirty fuels"; you
> decide if it would add rancor or value to this List. I too prefer gas,
> electricity, and solar (thermal or soon enough, induction cooking via PV).
> There are markets for those. But until the 3 billion people we bleed our
> hearts and research funds on get to that nirvana, reducing the PICs and the
> drudgery of cooking should be the prime goals of research on solid fuels
> use. Banning solid fuels should be limited to some areas and some users.
>
> Nikhil
>
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