[Stoves] Cane coal in Haiti : CNN

[nari phaltan]

It is really interesting to note that people from MIT would follow a very
inefficient process of making charcoal from sugarcane leaves when
gasification can produce both charcoal and energy. It sometimes happens that
whatever simple MIT does it is reported widely in mass media. I know this
first hand since I taught at Amy's D-Lab and know litle bit about their
process.

Cheers.




On 8/5/06, Tom Miles <tmiles at trmiles.com> wrote:
>
>
> Richard,
>
> You'll find additional links to Amy Smith's work and the D-Lab at MIT at
> http://www.bioenergylists.org/ It looks like a student project with her as
> the instructor. Her project has certainly gotten a lot of press. She uses
> a
> barrel grinder that looks like Jeff's fireball maker.
>
> Crispin's question about whether the stove is suitable for the fuel is
> important, expecially with "unholey" briquettes.
>
> TWP and Aprovecho have been in Haiti working with the Ananda Marga
> Universal
> Relief Team
> http://bioenergylists.org/en/twpamurt
>
> I wonder if Stuart, Jeremy or Larry can tell us if they have come across
> any
> briquetting projects including the D-Lab cane coal.
>
> Tom
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org
> [mailto:stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Richard Stanley
> Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 12:22 PM
> To: stoves at listserv.repp.orgstoves@
> listserv.repp.orgstoves at listserv.repp.org
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Cane coal in Haiti : CNN
>
> Dear all,
> I don' know if the briquettes which Amy and company are talking about are
> of
> our original hollow core design or another shape altogether. We set up
> hollow core briquetting in Haiti in 2001. They were using leaves straws
> rice
> husks, charcoal fines,  bagass--and some paper (the latter was not sought
> as, while it is very easy to make for the beginner,  it indeed will never
> burn as well as any number of agro residue blends.
>
> I heard throu the briquette grapevine, that a group of missionaries took
> on
> briquetting on their own with no apparent interaction with the actual
> practitioners  and they burned out a few years later. Still others whom we
> had never heard of came out of the woodwork with reports of using the tech
> for several years and they were quite happy with it.
> All I do know is that a good hollow core briquette works very well if you
> know what you are doing. It is a smokey mess if you do not.
>
> No matter whose briquette it was, the quality of reportage is lacking
> abit,
> in depth:  the story is far from compete. Crispin points out that the
> stove
> they used was not correct for his brick briquette. We do not know what
> kind
> of process was used and where they learned it.  Now could you Amy, kindly
> give us some details?
>
> Richard Stanley
>
> On Aug 4, , at 7:30 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Dear Friends
> >
> >
> >
> >> Impoverished Haiti has sugar to burn
> >> Engineers: Cane charcoal could help solve cooking fuel problems
> >
> >
> > It seems the stoves used (if any) to burn the paper briquettes were
> > not suited to the fuel.  If I put alcohol gel in a coal stove I would
> > get results of a similar nature.
> >
> >
> >
> > Apolinario in Maputo is doing a pretty good job of combining charcoal
> > dust and bits into a paper bound briquette that is selling well in the
> > face of an LPG shortage.  There is no well suited stove for that
> > either but it sounds better than soggy paper in Haiti.
> >
> >
> >
> > Use paper as a cheap binder.  End of short story.  Of course you have
> > to dry it....
> >
> >
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Crispin
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Stoves at listserv.repp.org
> > http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_listserv.repp.org
> >
>
>
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