[Stoves] News: National Geographic on promotion of gas stoves over improved woodstoves - in Guatemala

Thu Sep 7 22:33:01 CDT 2017

Ronal,

Could you ask Bill if he intends to have plans for his heating
stove/biochar maker that was videoed awhile back?

Thank you,

Ken

On Sep 7, 2017 8:01 PM, "Gordon" <gordon.west at rtnewmexico.com> wrote:

> It could, but is designed for computer fans, 12vdc and a few amps. A small
> pv panel can drive it or a battery.
>
> Entrepreneurs see problems as the seeds for growing opportunities.
>
> On Sep 7, 2017, at 8:21 PM, Frank Shields <franke at cruzio.com> wrote:
>
> Question 1) Will his system run without forced air?
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 7, 2017, at 1:25 PM, Ronal W. Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
> List:
>
> I’m one of the two “interested” that Gordon mentions near the end.  Hope
> to be talking personally to Bill and Gordon in NM within a few days.
> Anyone have specific questions I can try to answer?
>
> Ron
>
>
> On Sep 7, 2017, at 7:34 AM, Gordon West <gordon.west at rtnewmexico.com>
> wrote:
>
> I haven’t taken a turn at answering my own questions…
>
> - What are people trying to do?
>
> When Bill and I began our collaboration four or five years ago in southern
> New Mexico, we had considerably different focuses (though with plenty of
> overlap). I had been working on U.S. forest restoration issues, primarily
> regarding National Forest lands, trying out new approaches to less than
> industrial level forest thinning and developing new products for woody
> biomass that fit within small rural community context. Bill had been
> working to solve the poor Mexican community problem of dependence on
> expensive propane for cooking and heating. He had been using pecan shells
> for feedstock for his biochar producing TLUD stoves, with a distribution
> plan that is intended to create a biochar centric economy - giving TLUD
> stoves and feedstock to families in trade for the produced biochar, which
> should break even in a year or two, after which the families would own the
> device and could make their own decisions about feedstocks and markets. The
> social concept is to create a market for biochar, which should drive the
> adoption of the technology by the populace better than just the cooking and
> heating piece of the equation.
> As Bill recently said, the key thing to do is to create viable markets for
> biochar, then people will flock to making it. The technology piece will
> sort itself out, probably more through innovations by the producers than by
> the ’savers of the planet’. The wide range of benefits associated with
> biochar, from adding value to liability biomass (which is a big problem in
> some areas) to carbon negative energy to more productive soils, will be
> realized even though those things are not the primary drivers of the
> market.
>
> Bill sought me out because he wanted to try using woodchips. At first, we
> saw our efforts as parallel tracks that did not have much in common besides
> the making of biochar. That has evolved quite a lot and we have created a
> ‘community system’ that we think will fit the context of rural communities
> and provide the range of benefits listed above. The communities can range
> from poor Mexican to Native American reservations to small towns to cities
> (Boulder CO is looking at a project with us). In each situation the context
> is closely considered (feedstock source, heat needs, biochar markets) and
> adjustments made to match a ‘community scaled system’ to the context.
>
>
>
> - What problems are getting in the way of your success?
>
> Nothing new here - we need development capital and demonstration projects.
> We have gotten a small amount of grant funding from a community development
> fund in Arizona and a biomass research grant through Arizona State
> Forestry. The bulk of financial support has been through Bill working for
> free (living on social security retirement income), and me working in
> construction to buy parts and keep the lights on at the shop. Various
> funders have rejected proposals based upon: a lack of understanding of the
> issues; a lack of confidence in a small operation run by unknown
> characters; and our lack of ‘evidence’ in the form of publicity,
> demonstrations, and track record (as one fellow put it, “Get three units in
> successful operation for three years, then we can talk.”) We are currently
> aiming at getting private investment to fund completion of the equipment
> set and to do a couple of demonstration projects.
>
>
>
> - What collaborations are possible?
>
> This question is more about folks seeing possibilities after reading
> responses to the first two questions. Two of you have already expressed
> interest in working with Bill and me, so that clearly means collaborations
> are possible!
> Best,
>
> Gordon West
> The Trollworks
>
> *An entrepreneur sees problems as the seeds of opportunity.*
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 6, 2017, at 8:14 PM, Cecil Cook <cec1863 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> - What are people trying to do?
>
>
>
> Invent cool stuff and get it adopted to help save the world.
>
>
>
> - What problems are getting in the way of your success?
>
>
>
> Ignorance about how to invent cool stuff and get it adopted.
>
>
>
> - What collaborations are possible?
>
>
>
>
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>
> Thanks
>
> Frank
> Frank Shields
> Gabilan Laboratory
> Keith Day Company, Inc.
> 1091 Madison Lane
> Salinas, CA  93907
> (831) 246-0417 cell
> (831) 771-0126 office
> fShields at keithdaycompany.com
>
>
>
> franke at cruzio.com
>
>
>
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