[Stoves] Crispin´s kiln -- Bourry Birebox gasifier heater

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Everyone

Andrew JH wrote 

>I doubt Crispin will miss out on any ideas he thinks he can use, 
>he's in business churning out a commercial product.

It is important that I declare my involvement here in case anyone
misunderstands what I do with all these stoves.

I work about 1/2 time as a consultant for the GTZ managed Programme for
Biomass Energy Conservation in the SADC (Southern African Development
Community) project which is titled GTZ/ProBEC.  It covers 14 countries.

In each target market ProBEC tries to upraise private sector players to
manufacture, in a sustainable manner, stoves that meet the definition of
being 'improved' and which displace existing methods or devices.

This means in most cases, new designs or significant refinement of existing
stoves.  They have to save 50% of wood or 40% of charcoal to qualify (there
are a few additional quibbles in the definitions).

It is my job to identify viable products, materials and processes in each
locality, then work out how to train existing or new 
producers who will then make a living in the stove business.  Production
tooling (closer to my background) is often required.  The projects also
include marketing plans, distribution channels, raw material supplies and so
on.

Any design produced in the programme (at least so far) is in the public
domain.  Anything discussed here and applied in, say, Maputo, remains public
and it can be implemented anywhere.  If you contribute, you are contributing
to pubic knowledge and to the viability of someone else's private business
in a far off country, typically a local entrepreneur with some modern
business savvy.

I have tried to make the development of the Maputo Ceramic Stove very
public, describing the stages of design and implementation in detail so that
people might be inspired to replicate the process.  Hopefully there are new
productive enterprises rising up here and there using this approach.

As everyone is aware, the scale of implementation required to make much of a
dent in the universe of need is huge.  The methods and approaches of the
past are not adequate. The best we can make from the investments to date is
to use the testing and design ideas, refining them in the direction of
'commercial' products that meet ordinary product norms and expectations.  It
has to be pragmatic, but radical in many cases.  Risks are necessary and
failures avoided.

There is a large gap between the 'ideas' stage of stove work and the
'commercial application', a gap similar to that between academic progress in
science and the industrial application of such discoveries.  During the
recent formation of the Industrial Designers Association of South Africa
this gap was highlighted as the major limitation for Developing Countries.
They design great new concepts but don't bring them to market on an
industrial scale.

Look at the stove discussion: mostly pretty radical talk, and great ideas.
The commercialization of them is pretty spare.  Bridging that gap is the
most urgent task we face.  

For us working on the public end of stove technologies, this essentially
involves working out how to make other people wealthy, a goal I hold in high
esteem.  Making other people wealthy has been described as "the most great
accomplishment".  It is this admirable discussion list that has assisted me
more than anything else to make progress in this regard.

Give yourselves a hearty round of applause!

Best regards
Crispin in Singapore