[Stoves] Declaration about Woodgas

Fri Oct 20 12:48:20 CDT 2017

Crispin:

Forget "Big" this or that. There is also Big Bureaucracy, Big Foundations,
Big Academe (and what Al Weinberg spoke of "Big Science").

There can be "Big Wood"; rice husk power is commercial, though Husk Power
in India seems to have shut down.

That said, merely saying "ways and means exist to burn fuels cleanly and
they should be used" begs the question -- how to get from here to there.
This is Kirk Smith's Second Epiphany and disingenuous "challenge".

I would prefer to flat out say "Woodgas IS a clean fuel", THEN qualify
about "produced and used right, for specific contexts".

Context is important. For small users, "energy security" is what is
available on-demand; not all cooking can be outsourced and certainly no
heating.

I am now convinced that WHO, EPA, GACC have gone on a wild run about
"clean", which itself is a contextual, subjective choice like cooking.

The last thing I would want to see is yet another paper on the econometrics
of "clean cooking" epidemiology -- the intellectual smoke of "health
benefits". We in the electricity business used to do that about kerosene v.
electric lighting, and I even argued that with respect to LPG lighting  (a
policy option in place of grid extension) and cooking. That was in 1986,
until the Team Leader said, "Look, stop that theology. Tell me how much I
need to budget every year in terms of ongoing subsidies for kerosene v.
electricity tariffs v. LPG price).

The best argument for woodgas is that it is clean enough, the fuel is
local, the stoves have been proved useful and used, create charcoal for
sale or as fuel inventory, and that, like capital subsidies for solar home
systems, can be budgeted once, then consumer acceptance and supply chain
evidenced.

All this talk about BC, health, efficiency, is unmitigated, gagging smoke.

Nikhil

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nikhil Desai
(US +1) 202 568 5831
*Skype: nikhildesai888*

On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 10:51 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:

> Dear Paul
>
> I appreciate that you are on the right track.
>
> I know it is not absolute in the same manner, but could you say, "Woodgas
> can be a clean fuel too"?
>
> I am concerned that you correct say in the beginning that no fuel is clean
> on its own, an opinion shared widely, because it depends on how you burn it.
>
> Then it says further down that woodgas is a clean fuel, without the
> qualification contained in the earlier statement.
>
> Would you be better off saying something that undermines the incorrect
> notion that 'there are clean fuels and dirty fuels' and reinforces what is
> true: that ways and means exist to burn fuels cleanly and they should be
> used.
>
> I am not all that happy with "Woodgas can be a clean fuel too" because
> without context it is basically bandwagonning behind a dead horse. Like the
> WBT low power metrics, it has to be dragged off to the glue factory.
>
> No fuel is inherently clean by all definitions. Not even woodgas. How far
> can you take on the problem of the misrepresentation of scientific truth,
> while still pointing out that woodgas can be created and burned very
> cleanly, by any definition?
>
> I guarantee that those intending to profit from the misrepresentation will
> not help you. This is Big Gas against Big Oil. Perhaps you need to create
> Big Wood and straighten both of them out.
>
> Regards
> Crispin
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf
> Of Paul Anderson
> Sent: 19-Oct-17 22:16
> To: Doc Anderson <psanders at ilstu.edu>
> Subject: [Stoves] Declaration about Woodgas
>
> Stovers, Charists, and all,
>
> I have prepared a "Declaration of Clean Cooking with Woodgas" for
> everyone's consideration.   A copy of the version as of today's date
> 2017-10-19 is attached, or you can get it at https://woodgas.com/
> declaration/ where any revisions will be available.    Therefore, there
> is still time for your comments to be considered.   This is now available
> several days before the start of the
> 2017 GACC Forum in Delhi, which I will be attending and will hear some
> feedback about this "Woodgas Declaration."
>
> The bulk of the page has the justification statements:   "Whereas
> ......."  (10 of them.)   And based on the truth of those statements, then
> comes the declarations:
>
> "now, therefore be it
> DECLARED ...... that:
> 1. there are no "clean fuels" per se, but they can be “clean” (by
> definitions that are subject to discussion) only when properly combusted in
> appropriate, specialized combustion devices (burners and stoves), and fuels
> by themselves are neither clean nor dirty;
>
> 2. woodgas is a clean fuel when appropriate micro-gasifiers with
> designated solid fuels are used by adequately-experienced cookstove users;
>
> 3. woodgas has the potential to reach hundreds of millions of households
> to provide cleaner cooking while using smaller quantities of their current,
> locally-available fuel supplies, and all with sustainable financing,
> reduced expenditures, and even potential net profit;
>
> 4. leaders, authorities and all parties interested in clean cookstoves
> should recognize in words, writings, actions and financial support that
> solid biomass can become a very clean-burning fuel for cooking in woodgas
> stoves for millions of households; and
>
> 5. the expression “Woodgas is a Clean Fuel” is more than a motto, and it
> should be a guiding principle for prompt actions to assist at least one
> billion of the most underserved people on Earth, this being a most worthy
> goal that also has realistic prospects for being accomplished with
> honorable expedience. "
>
> Please participate in the discussions.   I start my trip to India early on
> Saturday, so please discuss without expecting me to make replies promptly.
>
> Paul
>
> --
> Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
> Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
> Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072
> Website:  www.drtlud.com
>
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