[Stoves] energy lost in charcoal makinag and briquetting

[adkarve]

Dear stovers,
the charcoal making stove has solved the problem of energy lost during
pyrolysis of biomass in the process of charcoal making and also of the
energy lost during briquetting of the char. We use small pieces of wood in
the charcoal making stove. The pyrolysis gas is used as cooking fuel and the
charred pieces of wood that are left behind, are used as fuel in the Sarai
cooker. Sarai cooker is a steam cooker, but it does not generate pressurised
steam. It requires only 100 g charcoal to cook beans, rice, meat or
vegetables for a family of five. It has become quite popular, and we have
already sold about 30,000 of them. The charcoal making stove is not yet
under mass production, but it would cost about US$12 when mass produced.
Sarai cooker also costs about the same. If a family has these two devices,
it would only require a couple of kg of wood pieces every day. This type of
fuel is free of cost in the villages, because the villagers can use pieces
of cotton stalks or pigeonpea stalks. In areas where they do not grow cotton
or pigeonpea, they can cut brushwood growing on public lands or undergrowth
in forest lands. A shrub called Lantana camara has assumed weedlike
proportions in forests and the foresters are willing to allow people to cut
it and take it away.
I had already mentioned the fact that at current prices of wood and
charcoal, by burning about Rs.2 worth of wood in the charcoal making stove,
one gets Rs.3 worth of charcoal. So the more wood you consume, the more
money you make.
Yours
A.D.Karve