[Stoves] Pre-payment v. credit (Re: Teddy on pre-cooked beans)

Fri Jan 6 18:21:00 CST 2017

Teddy:

At first I thought you were talking of smart cards for pre-cooked beans,
which confused me.

Except that Anil Rajvanshi's idea of "rural restaurants" can be run more
efficiently run with meal vouchers that are given out digitally (phone or
cards). He might even have proposed just that; I don't remember now.

As for institutional biomass fuel supply, I don't see any difference. Say,
I invest in a fuelwood supply and storage scheme, so long as I can assure
fuel quality and shape/size of chopped wood (like bundles I saw in front of
Bethesda Coop here two days ago - perhaps 15 kg for $8). I write out a
contract on quantity and frequency, with some min/max take or validity of
the contract, and give you a way to order digitally to my warehouse for
delivery or pickup.

It is a little easier with pellets and briquettes. BP's Oorja stove idea
was based on selling pellets via petrol pumps. Except that the idea
originated from the Indian version of Castrol, which BP acquired (or
re-acquired after 40--50 years). Seems to me Castrol people had what I
might call "lubricants mindset" when it came to logistics and inventory
planning, instead of "diesel mindset".

I once thought of petrol pumps becoming vendors of Solar Home Systems or
pico-PV products -- after all, they were selling kerosene, which in India
was a loss-making proposition given government's price fixing. Was worth
thinking of when petrol pumps were new in rural areas, in India or Africa,
and electrification rates were low.

Then I wrote about an energy voucher scheme - money could be used for solar
or LPG or qualified biomass fuels (solid, liquid/gel).

Transactions can be digitized, no big deal. Contracts are the headache; get
an IT person and a lawyer together.

Or have I gone bonkers and failed to understand a basic objection in Kenyan
context?

You might know that in India Our Dear Leader has created an utter chaos by
pushing digital transactions on everybody by suddenly declaring 86% of the
currency in circulation illegal on 8th November.

N

On Jan 4, 2017, at 3:12 AM, Cookswell Jikos <cookswelljikos at gmail.com>
wrote:

Im not sure how they cook the beans in the first place but perhaps they
should chat with these guys who are pushing for LPG pay-as-you-go system -
''PayGo developed a smart metering system that enables customers to prepay
for cooking gas, based on their disposable income at the time, with the
convenience of mobile money. PayGo’s smart meter monitors customers’ gas
consumption, and predicts when gas is running out based on usage patterns.
This, combined with customer intelligence and smart logistics, enables
PayGo to tackle last mile delivery challenges as well as to provide an
uninterrupted supply of affordable gas to low-income customers who are
traditionally underserved. By doing so, PayGo aims to provide this untapped
market with far better services, while at the same time transitioning
customers to healthier and safer fuels.' https://medium.com/
catalyst-fund/delivering-modern-energy-in-kenya-building-on-mobile-money-
eb0eba1960da#.lvrknqqv7

Any thoughts on how to convert this type of system for large institutional
biomass stoves and their fuel supply?

Teddy

*Cookswell Jikos*
www.cookswell.co.ke
www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos
www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com
Mobile: +254 700 380 009
Mobile: +254 700 905 913
P.O. Box 1433, Nairobi 00606, Kenya

Save trees - think twice before printing.

On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 10:27 PM, Traveller <miata98 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Teddy:
>
> You didn't tell us that they warmed pre-cooked beans!!
>
> Pre-cooked beans could turn down heat on Africa's dwindling forests
> <http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1442316/pre-cooked-beans-heat-africas-dwindling-forests#sthash.sfxpXbPA.dpuf> New
> Vision (Kampala) 18 December 2016
>
>
> <http://www.cp-africa.com/2016/12/25/uganda-canned-pre-cooked-beans-will-reduce-deforestation/>
> Uganda: Canned pre-cooked beans will reduce deforestation
> <http://www.cp-africa.com/2016/12/25/uganda-canned-pre-cooked-beans-will-reduce-deforestation/>,
> CP Africa 25 December 2016.
>
> It is not clear whether the beans are cooked in the factories with gas or
> electricity or wood or charcoal. Del Monte Kenya is involved, so you could
> perhaps find out.
>
> ****
>
> This is THE BEST external donor initiative I have seen in terms of what I
> call "outsourcing the kitchen". Of course people would want to cook at
> home, but as Anil Rajvanshi asserted about five years ago, "Working poor do
> not have the luxury of cooking three meals a day." He advocated subsidized
> meals for the working poor and I immediately endorsed (naming it "Sodexho
> for the Poor!")
>
> I wagered two years ago that worldwide, the total amount of useful energy
> spent for household cooking is about the same as that in non-household
> cooking (the entire "farm to market" or "farm to restaurant" supply chain).
>
> The "biomass cookstoves for poor households" and "clean air" folks have
> been obsessed with just the former, progressively declining market, and
> ignoring the latter. (If I wasn't correct two years ago, I am now or will
> be in two years. Heck, nobody has yet challenged me with data that show
> otherwise!)
>
> Time to get out of the box. Smell the flavors. See The Queen of Katwe, and
> market for roasted cornstalks.
>
> It is easier to design large-scale cookstoves for cafeterias, restaurants
> and food processing industries (which can be run many times longer than
> household cookstove, justifying the capital investments in newer cooking
> appliances).
>
> And if, as Frank suggests, fuel of uniform physical and chemical
> properties were to be prepared so as to improve stove performance in terms
> of reliability and controllability (as I suspect), a lot more can be
> achieved in aggregate fuel efficiency and emissions, even exposures (it is
> easier to control a factory of 500 compared to every household).
>
> Not all food preparation and cooking can be oursourced unless one were to
> eat in restaurants (or a mistress' home). But beans are a start.
>
> NEXT - exporting Canadian charcoal to Africa. Along with Canadian cooked
> foods. (Lots of credits in GHG emissions - depending on where the factory
> is located in Canada - and of course in aDALYs.)
>
> Nikhil
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Message: 4
>> Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2016 08:01:12 +0300
>> From: Cookswell Jikos <cookswelljikos at gmail.com>
>> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
>>         <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Lets eat beans for every meal!
>> Message-ID:
>>         <CAA-40H++44qOAQ6fwMCdA3jGEHzeFZrWvvtZ81mk5PQ-N=-vHA at mail.gm
>> ail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> I could not find out any more information about this unfortunately but on
>> a lighter note, the joke at the office is that perhaps this will exchange
>> one form of indoor air pollution for another more fragrant one? ;)
>>
>> Happy new year folks! Keep up the good work wherever you are!  And a
>> big round of thanks to Tom and Erin and the other admins.
>>
>> Teddy
>>
>>
>>
>> *Cookswell Jikos*
>> www.cookswell.co.ke
>> www.facebook.com/CookswellJikos
>> www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com
>> Mobile: +254 700 380 009
>> Mobile: +254 700 905 913
>> P.O. Box 1433, Nairobi 00606, Kenya
>>
>> Save trees - think twice before printing.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20170106/9470223d/attachment.html>