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A very quick response. I got to run.<br>
<br>
I've been looking at localised small scale production here in the UK
and think the same dynamic often comes into play. <br>
<br>
Also, I think it was a friend in Denmark (?)who described, the same
thing happening with the wood pellet market. Once the market took
off large energy companies joined, cut their prices to below cost
until all the small producers failed then, once they dominated the
market, increased pricing significantly.<br>
<br>
I think that some kind of community enterprise which produces
outside the normal market is a possible solution to this dynamic.
I'm thinking something like community supported agriculture.
Interestingly there are some community supported forestry schemes
that produce firewood. <br>
<br>
I guessing that a community would see the value of supporting such
an enterprise, be that with money or time. I'm interested in
projects where the enterprise is governed by the community,
particularly where there are low/no barriers to participation.
Other threads can be tied to such an enterprise to make it stronger
- alternative currency, education etc. <br>
<br>
Basing community enterprises on collaborative production of basic
needs (food and/or fuel) should provide a robust platform from which
to build a resilient local economy.<br>
<br>
Best<br>
<br>
Darren<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 02/12/2011 08:36, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:051601ccb0cd$8439b360$8cad1a20$@gmail.com"
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<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Dear
Richard<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">All
points noted. I think you will have to accept that the heat
content of the fuel is limited by the chemical composition.
Grasses are a bit high in ash so they are not as energetic
as wood. But that is a quibble.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The
wood substitution is a great achievement on any scale.
Sweeping up the otherwise wasted charcoal dust and chips is
a Good Start, as they say. What usually ruins a host of
small businesses processing a resource found in a
concentrated area is the entry of a moneyed businessperson
into the market with his own transport and vending outlets.
It is only a matter of time in Dar if putting a price on the
raw material will kill it. As you know I spend decades
trying to work out how to protect the tiny business from
such moves. In the bread baking industry (small local wood
fired bakeries) in the Eastern Cape this played out to a
very bad end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The
small bakeries will doing so well and the profits so secure
that it began to affect the sales of large bakeries in East
London who sold over a huge area including eGcuwa
(Butterworth) in the Transkei. Seeing the writing on the
wall, and wanting to prevent the local industry becoming so
important that it would receive political/legal protection,
the bakeries dropped the wholesale price of bread below the
cost of the raw materials <i>for a year</i> until all the
local bakeries were out of business. Having killed them, and
all the equipment being repossessed from them, they raised
the price again higher than before and made all the money
back. To them it was just an investment. The population went
back to eating ‘square bread’ from several hours away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">I
provoked a similar reaction with the sales of diamond mesh
fence making machines. The wire industry realised we had a
winning combination of technologies and they had no future
in shipping fence from a centralised point. They could not
get past the transport inefficiency (compared with bulk
plain wire).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The
response was to raise the price of plain wire and cut the
price of fencing. The total income for them was the same,
the viability of the diamond mesh makers was run to the
wall. One can make fence and make money, but the profit that
would have been made by the central producers selling
finished fence was earned from the plain wire. They are big
and omnipresent enough to destroy the entire small producer
market, even though production technology was demonstrably
viable under normal circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The
fuels businesses are in the same boat, potentially. Someone
working out where the real market is (say, Europe) for the
torrefied or charcoaled or briquetted fuels made from
‘waste’ will step in and pay enough to get it. End of short
story. Raw material producers will benefit, no one else.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The
same thing is happening with scrap sheet metal. It is harder
and harder to get enough because it is being shipped to
China for reprocessing, even from central Zambia and
Liberia. Even the DRC though I suspect there is cobalt and
diamonds mixed in there with it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">In
order to make a large number of metal stoves – enough to
satisfy the whole market, it is not possible to do this
without using new material. That has to be addressed sooner
or later. One option is clay which is why I spent so much
time working on clay material theory and processing in
Maputo. It can compete with metal on a local producer scale
if the materials are right. It is easier to make high tech
ceramics than metal from ore, that’s for sure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">There
is yet much to be done and plenty of room for everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">++++<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Your points taken Crispin, <o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the 50% values Insitu --of course: You
have a solid point. No lo contestare ! In the form of a
hollow core briquette its another story. The heat values we
are getting run more in the low 20mjs. The reason has to do
with infra red reflectance within the core durign the burn.
Look at the burn again in the holey briquette rocket stove
of rok Oblak It is very near to a gassifier flame. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On charcoal drying up…that would be worse
than beer produciton halting out here. (have seen the latter
in the 70's with near riots nationwide..) Thats why Paal and
Otto Formo's solution of burning biomass and making char out
of it is such a good idea.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whomever pays for paper or charcoal dust,
will almost assuredly kill their briquette business (at
least the wet process hand production, microenterprise-based
type): It's all very contingent upon getting / adapting
blending FREE resources. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am yet to be convinced that much more
than 20% (by dry weight) of waste charcoal is needed in a
biomass briquette, though. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">One can be otherwise pyrolising, charring
and gassifying a biomass briquette all in one go-- during
its actual point of application, especially if the mentioned
pre drying pre heating technique is followed. Nor is paper
necessary where you have chopped and well retted field
grasses and straws to do the work of binding..<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Based on reports from the producers and
trainer teams whom we know of here in Tanzania, the direct
consequence of briquette production is replacing demand for
about 2000 tons of wood fuel this year--in the going local
combination of wood or charcoal. last year it was 298 tons. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">We started training producers in 2007 and
from them, trainers in 2009. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kind regards,<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Richard Stanley<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dar<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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