[Stoves] The Akha TLUD - Biochar Project in Bangladesh.

[Julien Winter]

Hi Folks;

Thanks for all your comments.

Bangladesh has some challenges with its population density, and pending
sea-level rise.

However, it is great place for making collegial partnerships.  People tend
to work and cooperate together much more than they do in North America.
This applies to the university educated professionals in the cities, and
farmers in the countryside.  If you have a GOOD IDEA, people are please to
listen, and get involved.  There are leading farmers who are eager to
experiment with biochar.  If you want to help them adapt and develop it,
great.  You do have to be on guard for unscrupulous business people.

What does exist in the countryside is something called "NGO fatigue."
Outside people coming in with an ill suited idea that they try to impose.
Then they go away.  Villagers see what they can get for free from foreign
NGOs, so you may be greeted with enthusiasm, but you may not be taken
seriously.

I am fortunate, because a local NGO, called the Christian Commission for
Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), took an early interest in biochar, and
invited me to explain it in 2013.  Out of that was born the Bangladesh
Biochar Initiative.

CCDB was founded in 1972, and has a network of compounds ("campuses")
across the country.  They have a very competent staff specializing in
extension education, micro businesses, and rural development.  I helped one
of their staff, Mahbubul Islam, design the Akha stove, we developed the
TLUD-biochar ecology viewpoint, and proposed the Users Groups methodology
for deployment.  When CCDB got funding from ICCO - Netherlands, CCDB staff
made it happen.  They knew precisely what to do.  Research partnerships are
being formed with agronomists in universities to experiment with biochar.

Because of my place in time, it happened to be me that introduced the idea
of TLUDs and biochar to Bangladesh.  However, as the ideas take root, they
are taking over.  They have big dreams for developing biochar
technologies.

At this point, we need to look into densifying biomass.  Methods of various
degrees of sophistication could be found.  Compressing wet biomass into
briquettes is likely a good fit for the countryside.  We should see if it
is feasible to developing pellets as a renewable, commercial fuel.  There
is lots of rice straw.  Rice straw has been pelleted in other parts of
Asia.  I am searching the research literature to see if the high mineral
content (ca. 20%) has posed a problem for abrasion of equipment, lower
heating value, and ash in the stove.

Co-firing leaves and wood in TLUDs may extend the TLUD season.  The Biochar
Users Groups should experiment with that.  I expect that the leaves will
burn to ash before the center of wood pieces has pyrolyzed.

Thanks again for all your comments.

Cheers,
Julien.




-- 
Julien Winter
Cobourg, ON, CANADA
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