[Stoves] Coffee waste and briquettes

Wed Jan 3 14:45:31 CST 2018

HI James, Understood now: You are based in Malawi but working in  Timor -Leste..

A French volunteer was introducing briquettes in east Timor several years back.  I am not handy to my files here in Nicaragua but will be back in the US part of the Americas  mid to late January. Send me a reminder and I will dig up his cont. We were in the warm heart from 1994 thu mid 1999. Based in Lilongwe but traveled throughout . 
act details or you.

The briquettes you saw in the market (in, presumably, Blantyre Malawi) were probably  coming from Blantyre or Indirande or perhaps Chiradzulu (about 15 -20 miles up and 5 miles off the Zomba road from Limbe). Neither group has capacity to scale up the production based on the tech they are likely still using.  

We have however been working with groups in Haiti (Fuego del Sol), Hungary (Toln Project) ,  Guatemala (Fundacion Progressar) and more recently in the states (Balboa Island /Newport Beach)  for scaling up production. Haiti takes the lead as yet, as their stated capacity of 5000 bqs per day The range technology used by these groups  of the tis 3-8000 bqs (or a market of ≈ 2-500 families) per day.

So in short, indeed it can be scaled up to serious numbers with not much more than a 20 to 40 ton bottle jack (better; air-over-hydraulic jack) a larger 15 - 20 kw hammer mill and much larger drying rack capacity. This  scale would only make sense for urban areas though. The manual methods still make economic sense for the rural populations because transportation costs of this low value per volume product, relative to the ease of local replicability mitigate against urban based production for areas much beyond the immediate urban market. 

The technology is essentially a cardboard table sized press. in which the compression happens from beneath the table top --pressing the mash up via a reinforced tray containing  piston rods and pistons-- through a rack of between 12 and 36 parallel aligned cylinders,  against a reinforced closed and heavily locked -but quick releasing-lid.  Excess water (lots of it in fact) is captured in a tray beneath the pistons (and  just above the jack beneath) and routed back into the mixing tank.

Other schools (Haiti ) p the refer down compression with the pistons and jack mounted above the cylinders. One has to weigh the costs against ease of maintenance and output etc. for a choice in that option. 

In short, it is very much scaleable. Whether in Timor or Malawi !  

Let me know if you want to pursue this option. 

Best,
 Richard Stanley
Laguna de Apoyo Nicaragua 

    On Jan 3, 2018, at 2:45 AM, James Robinson <jamesrobinson77 at gmail.com> wrote:. 
> 
> Hi Richard, <>
>  
> Thanks for the reply. Although I’m based in Malawi the work is actually in Timor-Leste, where there are several large coffee companies with waste that could be used as a fuel for urban markets. Actually one group produces beans for Starbucks so this could be a potential CSR project for them. I’ll have a look through the legacy foundation work and will pass on your contact details.
>  
> For now my work in Malawi is minimal but I’ll log the contacts and interest for later use. What did you get involved with in Malawi? I’ve just seen some forestry waste briquettes sold to urban restaurants and industry but nothing that looks like it could scale.
>  
> Regards
> James Robinson
>  
> Zomba, Malawi
> Cell (Malawi): +265993032902
> Skype: jamesrobinson77
>  
> From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org <mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org>] On Behalf Of Richard Stanley
> Sent: 19 December 2017 05:47
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org <mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>>
> Cc: Peters Lea <amaibusa at hotmail.com <mailto:amaibusa at hotmail.com>>; William Malabu <nkhomano at sdnp.org.mw <mailto:nkhomano at sdnp.org.mw>>; Marcel Westdijk <m.westdijk4 at gmail.com <mailto:m.westdijk4 at gmail.com>>; BChidzaro Pamet <Pamet at africa-online.net <mailto:Pamet at africa-online.net>>
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Coffee waste and briquettes
>  
> Mulo bwanji James, 
> We did a bit of research in Uganda  2002-4. On coffee husk use. Another user turned up in redwood California near San Francisco and a local starbucks, who used the actual grounds but he has long since left trumpland for the Far East , parts unknown. The prices we work with uses the ag residues such as the sheath of the coffee bean partially pulped and softened to encapsulate less fibrous more granular wastes, s uch as coffee grounds in a water slurry. You can blend about anything from waste paper to rice straw a wide range of leaves and grasses following a few simple guidelines.. all of which are implemented in the field locally. 
>  
> There are also all kinds of ways to screw it up ! We have well illustrated manuals detailing the process the design and local fabrication of the  pressing technology , training and project planning and global examples of the tech in action , on a local basis .  Lots of the initial input to these manuals was gained by our 5 years in the warm heart between 1994 - 99. You can get these online thru our website www.legacyfound.org <http://www.legacyfound.org/>. 
> As well I’ve cc’d this email to four colleagues in Malawi to help facilitate your introduction. I would encourage you to go out to them for their insights  and potential training of yourself and your counterparts.
> Tell me more about where you are working& in what capacity, what process you are using , what applications and distribution strategy you envision. I got around the nation quite a bit and may have something to offer as or at least before you dive in. 
> Tionanna ,
> Richard Stanley 
>  
>  
>  
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Dec 17, 2017, at 2:59 PM, James Robinson <jamesrobinson77 at gmail.com <mailto:jamesrobinson77 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> Dear List,
>  
> Greetings from a rainy and power outage ridden Malawi. I’m after a quick overview of using coffee waste to make briquettes if anyone has the knowledge please. I’m just finishing up some work in Timor-Leste and there’s a lot of coffee waste which could be put to good use. So what is a typical mix of briquette feedstock if coffee husks are involved (approx. 7cm dia. extruded) and what are the limitations of using this material? (The waste stream is heavily seasonal and market dynamics lean towards an urban briquette market. There is very little charcoal used)
>  
> Regards
> James Robinson
>  
> Zomba, Malawi
> Cell (Malawi): +265993032902
> Skype: jamesrobinson77
>  
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