<div dir="ltr"><br><div><p class="MsoNormal">Dear all,</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I remember Wendell Barry claiming he sacrificed only 10% of
his hill farm in Ky to grow the feed needed for his bionic tractors who did all
the all traction work on his farm. What’s
more they harvest the land and fertilize it every year so the farmer does not
have to waste him scarce time and energy planting, harvesting, and process his
food in warmer climates (which has to be done in the colder regions of the
world). How great is that? </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is a lot of work involved in planting, harvesting,
processing, and feeding biomass into technologies that convert biomass into
energy and energy into work. So we need
to do the cost/benefit assessments on the resources and work in and the energy
and work coming out of the farming and livelihood systems. I recall that big donkeys powered much of Middle
Eastern Civilizations including pulling the chariots used in warfare. These were bred for speed, endurance and
strength like we bred gigantic work horses.
But it is hard to beat a mule when it comes to horse power. As a child I learned a bit about mules on the
remnant of my family’s plantation in north Georgia and they are pretty easy to
work with and smelled great, seriously. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Horses, mules, donkeys, and oxen use most of the biomass they
ingest just to stay alive. As long as there is no constraint on land to grow
food for animal tractors that limitation does not apply because they harvest,
digest, and convert biomass they require and have more than enough to left over
to perform useful work. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The challenge is to efficiently and cheaply turn that HP
into useful work using modern technologies that pump water, grand grains, generate
electricity, crush stone, mix feeds, make and mix fertilizers, pull wagons, cut
contours, and level land for building, etc. These are all tasks that today are done using
electric, diesel, and petrol. I would be
interested in knowing the cost of the technology required to convert the power
of “x” horses working continuously over 24 hours throughout the year to produce
the different forms of energy needed to run an up to date modestly modern
family farm: lights, TV, water pumping, refrigerator, plowing, grass cutting,
feed grinding, mixing, hauling, etc. and how much land would be needed to feed
the horse power required? These tasks will need to technologically minimized by
reducing all tasks to the smallest loads possible: LED lighting, well insulated
fridges and freezer, etc. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And then of course we compare just how modern and efficient
and smart we compared to modernized horse powered farming by comparing the
cost/benefit performance curves on the same productive, profitable farm using
income energies from horses and humans versus the present day spectrum of expensive
technologies for directly harvesting energy from sun, wind, water, and biomass.
It would be a technology race between different income energy harvesting
technologies which compares the cost, human attention and work needed to operate
a horse powered farm and family household versus a system of small scale RETs
(renewable energy technologies) optimized for extracting work from particular income
energies over a 12 month annual cycle.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">What about that??</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">In search, </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">CECook</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Apr 18, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:crispinpigott@outlook.com" target="_blank">crispinpigott@outlook.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);line-height:initial">
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
I recall that the dream of such a multifuel engine was achieved by ITDG, now Practical Action. </div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
They had an engine that would run at 500 RPM on coal dust. It could also run on various oils. If the oil has long chain molecules they should be shortened (for example by transesterification) to reduce the minimum injection pressure requirement by turning it
into 'biodiesel' or bioparaffin. </div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Here's an island technology: how about grinding old palm leaves into powder and using that in a low speed diesel engine? The engine could be used to grind more fuel and have energy to spare for other tasks like pumping water and lighting and making briquetted
stove fuel. </div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Studies in the '70's showed that about 15% of a farm needs to be planted in sunflower to power the whole farm. In South Africa one can buy a container sized setup that will produce three litres per second of biodiesel from sunflower oil. </div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Regards </div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div style="width:100%;font-size:initial;font-family:Calibri,'Slate Pro',sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);text-align:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Crispin </div></font></span><div><div class="h5">
<br>
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Calibri';color:#000000">
<div>It seems a bit ironic but it is like the world has forgotten the Rudolph Diesel originally developed his engine to run on farm</div>
<div>produced plant based oils to promote self sufficiency. Wikipedia-----<font face="Times New Roman">Diesel was interested in using
</font><a title="Coal dust"><font face="Times New Roman">coal dust</font></a><font face="Times New Roman">
<sup><a><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a></sup> or
</font><a title="Vegetable oil"><font face="Times New Roman">vegetable oil</font></a><font face="Times New Roman"> as fuel, and in fact, his engine was run on peanut oil.<sup><a><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></a></sup>
Although these fuels were not immediately popular, </font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div> </div>
<div style="font-size:small;text-decoration:none;font-family:"Calibri";font-weight:normal;color:#000000;font-style:normal;display:inline">
<div style="font:10pt tahoma">
<div> </div>
<div style="background:#f5f5f5">
<div><b>From:</b> <a title="nariphaltan@gmail.com" href="mailto:nariphaltan@gmail.com" target="_blank">
nari phaltan</a> </div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, April 18, 2015 1:56 PM</div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a title="stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org" href="mailto:stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org" target="_blank">
Discussion of biomass cooking stoves</a> </div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> [Stoves] Diesel as an excellent fuel for rural households</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div style="font-size:small;text-decoration:none;font-family:"Calibri";font-weight:normal;color:#000000;font-style:normal;display:inline">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-size:large;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#351c75">
Dear stovers,</div>
<div style="font-size:large;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#351c75">
</div>
<div style="font-size:large;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#351c75">
This article proposes fossil fuel based clean combustion technology for rural poor.
<a href="http://www.nariphaltan.org/diesel.pdf" target="_blank">www.nariphaltan.org/diesel.pdf</a> </div>
<div style="font-size:large;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#351c75">
</div>
<div style="font-size:large;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#351c75">
Cheers.</div>
<div style="font-size:large;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#351c75">
</div>
<div style="font-size:large;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#351c75">
Anil</div>
<div> </div>
-- <br>
<div>Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)<br>
Tambmal, Phaltan-Lonand Road<br>
P.O.Box 44<br>
Phaltan-415523, Maharashtra, India<br>
Ph:91-2166-222396/220945/222842<br>
<a href="mailto:e-mail%3Anariphaltan@gmail.com" target="_blank">mailto:e-mail%3Anariphaltan@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="mailto:nariphaltan@nariphaltan.org" target="_blank">nariphaltan@nariphaltan.org</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.nariphaltan.org" target="_blank">http://www.nariphaltan.org</a><br>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
<hr>
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