[Stoves] Dung as fertilizer and fuel

[Thomas Reed]

Dear all:

Not to mention that there are very ornamental stacks of dung cakes along 
the side of the road!  (As neat as the woodpiles in Switzerland.)  I 
hope someone will send a few pictures of both...

TOM REED            BEF

adkarve wrote:
> Dear Jeff,
> you are reading too much in the use of dung cakes in India.  In the
> predominently agricultural areas of the country, there is a dearth of wood
> and therefore dung is used as fuel. The introduction of hybrid cow (heifers
> born to an Indian cow artificially inseminated by a pedigreed European
> bull's semen) has lead to higher milk yield with  farmers switching over to
> dairy farming. Dung is a byproduct of the dairy industry and there is good
> demand for dung cakes as fuel, which gives additional income to the dairy
> farmers. Cremation of dead bodies requires a lot of fuel and in areas short
> of wood, dung cakes come in handy for this purpose. Since everybody has to
> die some time, there is a steady demand for dung cakes for this purpose.
> Some of the larger dairy units have already started to use a filter press to
> remove the water from the dung and to use a briquetting machine to make dung
> briquettes. Such a standardised and densified product is used as fuel by
> brick manufacturers.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jeff Davis <jeff0124 at velocity.net>
> To: <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 9:08 AM
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Dung as fertilizer and fuel
>
>
> Dear List,
>
> While driving home last night I was thinking about A.D.Karve words about
> how India uses cow dung for making fuel and wall/floor plaster. Also the
> fact that they use cow dung balls to fuel crematories. Then the thought of
> the sacred cow came to mind.
>
> ******This is only IMHO!*****
>
> It starts to make sense that people and kids would make fuel by hand from
> sacred cow dung and it would be used to fuel crematories! Also house
> plaster! Lots of meaning here, that is if I'm reading the signs correctly.
>
> So if we barge in and tell these people that you should be briquetting
> your manure this way (what ever method) they might just turn up their
> noses and walk away from our methods and rightfully so.
>
> So lets take a look at fireballing in a mythological way or a meaningful
> way:
>
> - The sacred cow ask little in return: One could say the same for
> fireballing, no pressure, no expensive machine, small scale (or large,
> maybe), low maintenance and, no great skill to operate.
> - The sacred cow has gentle qualities: Fireballing operates with zero
> pressure.
> - The rotating drum is like the circle of life, on and on, for every turn
> it goes just a little further. The circle is complete. Over and over
> again.
> - Within this circle of life (rotating drum) the sacred cow dung brings
> forth agglomerations of life. Children could use this and watch how the
> agglomerations appear out of nothing, spontaneously. Well not nothing but
> out of the mass of dung, from the sacred cow springs forth live.
>
>
>
> A.D.Karve wrote,
>   
>> The sugar industry in India uses bagasse containing about 50% moisture as
>> fuel, to produce steam for generating electricity.
>>     
>
> I have retted switchgrass for about a year and then I was able to fireball
> this material with a new method that I call "rock & roll". I add a
> five-gallon bucket of retted switchgrass (compost like) into the cement
> mixer (with paddles removed) and add rocks. Next turn on the mixer. After
> material is reduced and agglomerations start to form I remove the rocks
> and continue to rotate the drum for final shaping/forming. I suspect that
> worms help to break down the switchgrass.
>
> If large operators and small family operations used/made fireballs then
> both large and small operators would be on a level playing field, maybe.
>
>
> Jeff
>
>
> --
> Jeff Davis
>
> Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA
>
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