[Stoves] In praise of biogas and charcoal (Re: Anand Kave)

[Nikhil Desai]

Dear Dr. Karve:

Thank you. Delighted to read this.

In a separate post (under works), I welcome the WHO acknowledgement that
"solid fuels" was only a "practical surrogate" for primitive numbers (my
characterization) of cooking emissions.

Much blood is shed on the ideological battle whether solid fuels are
"dirty" per se - they aren't - or whether they can be burnt cleanly - of
course, they can; depends on the method and location.

I hold that even "burnt clean" is a misnomer; emissions that do not lead to
distinctly harmful exposure - e.g. my smoking a cigarette at an isolate
beach does not pose "second hand smoke" risk to anybody except some
hyper-imaginative "Gold Standard" type halfway around the world - do not
matter. (My writing emits so much GHG where the electricity for my laptop,
fan and light is generated. I am positively a global warmer to some.)

The emphasis on location is key for both central station electricity or
steam generation and for water gas. It is not that the conversion emissions
and effluents merely put pollution elsewhere; it does matter where they put
it, and large, central sources are easier to regulate with control
technologies mandated.

I would like to repeat a broader, general point -- that fuel cycles for
biomasses and coals can and need be modernized; cleaner combustion is good
for the climate and the people -- and, now that you have brought up biogas
and water gas, a supplementary point, namely, physical capital (equipment)
and human capital (skills, the knowledge and experience that resides in
Anand Karve, or in software for microwave ovens, rice cookers, which is
embedded knowledge) are key to such modernization.

Physical and human capital take finance capital. The policy question I am
bothered by for over 15 years now is, does the WHO/EPA kind of research
based on layers and layers of fiction (assumptions) and ISO/IWA kind of
"tiering" stoves going to be of any use to anybody and if so when.

WHO in its Burning Opportunity bleats about "limited resources" and
"limited data". Of course more information is always better, provided it
has some use, not revised estimation of the Global Burden of Disease, the
"super-human" fantasy.

I wonder if an independent research board for technologies for the "Bottom
of the Pyramid" - and corresponding research on market definition, capacity
assessment, marketing, promoting local entrepreneurship - might be useful.

Even a clearing-house for the type of question you ask would be very
useful. (I remember the World Bank Development Marketplace financed many
small-scale energy sector pilots by non-profits. I reviewed applications
once or twice and was amazed how much people around the world shared
information but at the same time so many had questions that couldn't be
readily answered.)

GACC Secretariat has been promoting some such research, just that they do
not seem to have recognized the obvious tensions between what market
research says and what this goose chase about "tiers" is.

Do you happen to know if evaluations of recent (past ten years) "stove
programs" under Shell Foundation or Teri (a large DfID grant for stoves and
lanterns) are available?

Nikhil



 Message: 14
> Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2016 11:05:16 +0530
> From: Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com>
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
>    <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Oxymorons and credentials --- was Re: Off-topic
>    no longer, re: News from Colorado: 'Rolling Coal"
> Message-ID:
>    <CACPy7SfPQzPpbWPvwMN7B_ePJ8E8YEBTWDSFUOOKsnAkG0h=5A at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Dear Stovers,
> For cleanliness of burning, nobody can beat gaseous fuels. Using the
> technology developed by us, it is very easy  to produce biogas privately
in
> your own household from biodegradable garbage. It is therefore free of
> cost, and at least to the date of this writing, the Government has not
> taxed it. The technology developed by us, namely the urban household
biogas
> plant, is slowly being adopted by households all over India. At least two
> big Industrial houses have started manufacturing and marketing such plants
> in India. Charcoal is another such fuel, which too burns very cleanly.
With
> our TLUD kiln, we can produce charcoal cleanly from any light biomass like
> fallen leaves or agricultural waste. I am currently trying to develop a
> household technology aimed at converting charcoal into water gas, a
mixture
> of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Water gas was used as cooking fuel almost
> a century ago. It is also a very clean fuel, but it contains carbon
> monoxide, which is poisonous. I was wondering if a simple method , such as
> a membrane filter, was available for removing it from water gas.
> 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)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nikhil Desai
(US +1) 202-568-5831
*Skype: nikhildesai888*
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