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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Dear Dale and Friends<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>The analysis of alternatives to charcoal should include the reasons why people prefer it, strongly, over wood when given a choice of either, with charcoal costing much more than wood per kg. Working out theoretically how to burn all the wood (which is what burning gases+burning char is doing) doesn’t really address the reason why people don’t want to burn wood if they have enough money – in other words if they have a choice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Once it is admitted that burning wood gas then char is the same as burning whole wood as far as the forest is concerned, we can also admit that transport and convenience have a lot to do with it. In other words, this is a question strongly influenced by social questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>The transport of charcoal (MJ per ton-mile) is much cheaper than transporting wood and this difference dominates the charcoal economy. It is impractical to ship wood 600 km in Mozambique because of cost of doing so.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>In order to get the comparisons right I feel we need to agree on some definitions. The wood can be dried in the field. The energy content can be taken to be about 15 to 16 MJ/kg. Charcoal can be taken to be 29 MJ/kg or about double the energy. Mental arithmetic becomes easy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Decent charcoal production (improvement of the source technology, not only the stove technology) should be considered because it is a heck of a lot cheaper to improve the production than to improve every single stove in all sizes everywhere). What I mean by this is that if we seek systems type improvements we should consider all the systems involved. In a way it is like the ‘open fire’ as the baseline. It does not help the analysis to seek really bad examples of open fires then compare the ‘improvement’ to it. Just a caution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>One way to analyse this is to look at how the biofuel energy supply is already emerging. The shipping of wood pellets and torrefied wood shows there are ways to attract ‘custom’ selling packaged energy. A stick of wood is a package of energy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>I want to add one comment about the cost of the products. I tested recently a TLUD pellet burner that by opening a small door, burns the charcoal afterwards. The gas flame was not as controllable as the charcoal one but that is a quibble. There was no need to transfer anything, it was just a sequential burner. The market price is $5.50 and the production cost is $2.20 or so. That is with a metal shell. With a clay shell it would be about $1.40 to make. I think that is cheap. I will process the test results to see what the performance in numbers was like.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Pellets are a processed fuel and can include non-woody biomass. China is making millions of tons of them from agricultural waste with an aggressive expansion plan that include developing better and more efficient equipment. That may be the charcoal replacement of the future, provided people are willing to use them and the stoves deliver the cooking and heating experience they seek.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 4/8/2013 4:09 PM, Andreatta, Dale A. wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>At the recent ETHOS conference Paul Means and Chris Lanning gave a very thought-provoking talk about an alternative to charcoal. The basic idea was to use a gasifying stove with prepared wood fuel. The prepared wood fuel would be bought by the user instead of charcoal, and the supply chain would be similar to charcoal. The big advantage is that the very inefficient step of charcoal production is eliminated. The stove would hopefully be easy to use and would smoke very little, so as to retain the benefits of a charcoal stove. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>