[Stoves] [biochar] Methane from char-makers [1 Attachment]

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Hans-Peter

>Both, China and India, identified it as their major problem (beside lignite burning) for the devastating air pollution.
It is a continuous surprise to me that whenever China and air pollution are discussed, the fuel is blamed, not the combustor. Is that not very, very strange?
The problem in China is the incomplete combustion of coal, not its combustion. Without deviating into all the minor elements of the matter, I think we should stand strong and resist the tendency of some to blame a fuel for the incomplete combustion of it.
Wood is facing the same bias, but to a lesser extent because clean combustion of biomass is at least admitted to be possible, even if most of it is not. Unhelpfully, blaming charcoal for the fraction of those who produce it in an appallingly bad manner is not a statement about charcoal, it is about behaviour of producers.  To tackle this in Rwanda, at least 5 production improvement projects were running simultaneously to stop the waste and pollution. Why? Because there was recognition that people were going to continue to use it as a domestic fuel for a long time.  So instead of throwing ashes over their hair and wailing and gnashing their teeth, they showed people how to produce it properly.
As for coal combustion, it is not difficult to burn coal properly.  We have been discussing this<https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/31282> paper recently which is one demonstration of how to do it in a challenging working environment. The system works, and the users no longer have a problem of “devastating air pollution”.  I didn’t mention it here before but this is also a low-NOx burner.
For reasons I do not understand, this success is considered to be a problem in some circles.  Imagine showing that a big problem can be solved cheaply and conveniently within the budget and skill-set of those affected?
You’d think people would celebrate instead of denigrate.  Rwanda, by the way, is now producing its charcoal within the country in a sustainably manner. I started in Haiti too, but has a long way to go. Chad did it for 4 years then stopped (because the charcoal mafia could no longer make money).  I am sure there is a coal mafia and a wind mafia and a PV mafia and a wood fuel mafia as well. None of that means people cannot learn to burn fuel properly. It is just convenient for them to say it cannot. Lie, in other words.
Regards
Crispin
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