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

Tue Oct 11 21:11:10 CDT 2016

Evidence is lacking that the water hyacinth project in Bungoma is 
functional.   I would be delighted to have confirmation of that project 
actually working.

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 10/11/2016 12:01 PM, Ingelore Kahrens wrote:
>
> ... not to forget a project in Bungoma, North West Kenya, where they 
> make briquettes from water hyacinth, a noxious weed that is 
> suffocating Lake Victoria.
>
> http://aconetwork.weebly.com/fuel-briquettes.html
>
> Ingelore Kahrens
>
>
> Am 11.10.2016 um 12:35 schrieb scda2 at t-online.de:
>>
>> "Charcoal from waste",
>> i can report from 3 interesting projects in East Africa and Southern 
>> Africa  transforming waste to charcoal:
>>
>>
>> 1) A project in the East of Kenya near Lake Victoria is transforming 
>> bagasse from sugarcane can into charcoal. They are using an 
>> "adam-retort" kiln for the carbonization of the bio-waste. About 
>> 100kg  to120kg (dry weight) of bagasse fit into the wood chamber of 
>> about 2,5 (?)m³.
>>
>> About 30kg of charcoal are harvested. Efficiency is about 30% (burnt 
>> waste fuel in fire box not counted). The charcoal is shaped into 
>> briquettes, but I have not details about it.
>>
>> *mark.lung at eco2librium.com, <http://www.eco2librum.net,,> 
>> http://www.eco2librium.net/
>> *
>>
>> 2) Another interesting project is done in Kenya near Naivsha.
>> I cite from their homepage: "In urbanizing communities we install 
>> modern container-based toilets in people's homes for free and charge 
>> a small monthly fee to service them. Then, instead of dumping the 
>> waste, we transform it into a clean burning alternative to charcoal. 
>> Our dependable, user-focused, and vertically integrated sanitation 
>> services address the full sanitation value chain and allow families 
>> living in urbanizing communities throughout East Africa to live a 
>> modern and healthy life.
>>
>> As far as i understood the "pupe" is used as a binder to make 
>> charcoal briquettes. The charcoal comes from twigs, roots and leaves 
>> which is a left over from nearby flower farms. The twigs and leaves 
>> are carbonized in an "adam-retort" kiln. Unfortunately i don't have 
>> any further details.
>>
>> Catherine Berner | Technical Leadcatherine at sanivation.com
>>
>> www.sanivation.com <http://www.sanivation.com/> |
>>
>> 3) In *Malawi / Zimbabwe* a project is using bamboo left overs for 
>> carbonization. I am not sure if the bamboo-char is used itself or it 
>> is compacted into briquettes. What's interesting is that they made 
>> essays with an industrial steel retort and a brick built 
>> "adam-retort" kiln. The industrial steel retort has less volume and 
>> its costs including transport *300% more* that the brick built kiln
>> and they prefer the brick built kiln.
>>
>> (citation. "...The metal retort  stores approx. 330kg of bamboo 
>> (adam: dry or wet ??) and yields about 80kg – 100kg charcoal but uses 
>> almost as much firewood as the brick retort so efficiency conversion 
>> rate is low..."
>>
>> On the brick kiln i got the following information, i assume the wood 
>> chamber has a volume of about 3m³ :
>> " ..It is very successful.  The community group built it entirely 
>> themselves on provision of the materials.  The recovery rate is *very 
>> high* – approx. 800kg bamboo (adam: dry or wet ??) giving *250kg 
>> charcoal* and using around 100kg firewood or less.   (adam: 800kg --> 
>> 250kg, folllows 100kg --> 31kg)..".
>>
>> louise.bleach at googlemail.com,
>>
>> http://bio-innovation.org
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Dr. Chris ADAM
>> biocoal.org
>>
>> -----Original-Nachricht-----
>>
>> Betreff: [Stoves] Charcoal from waste - home cooking or other 
>> markets? (Re: Crispin, Anand Karve)
>>
>> Datum: 2016-10-04T16:43:48+0200
>>
>> Von: "Nikhil Desai" <pienergy2008 at gmail.com>
>>
>> An: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" 
>> <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
>>
>> 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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>
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