some initial project thoughts: stoves, health hazards, environmental impact
mattb...@gmail.com
I'm interested! Please add me to the Google Group membership if you
can.
This is probably really ignorant, but I am having a hard time coming
up with
solid confirmations. It certain that promoting charcoal production
from
waste biomass will reduce CO2 emissions? The Google search for "stove
developing world" brought up a ton of results about the impact of
inefficient wood burning stoves on global warming. Can we prove that
burning waste is significantly better? Should we aim to promote
conservation and introduce more efficient stoves as well?
I did a few searches and came up with the following thoughts:
* FERTILIZER - I found this article from MIT's TechReview that talks
about
using the charcoal briquettes as a rich fertilizer for crops:
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18589/page1/. The comments on
the
page were more useful to me than the article itself. I think more
needs to
be known about optimal concentration and integration with the soil.
* COLLABORATION - I know D-lab pioneered this, but the project is
sufficiently low-budget to allow for other universities to get
involved.
Are any other Engineers Without Borders chapters working on this? It
would
be great to divide up the work or put the findings on the national EWB
website for others to test/critique/use if they're doing similar
projects.
* HEALTH - I'm concerned about particulate matter from burning the
charcoal
causing lung disease. The process doesn't sound very well controlled
and
thus some impurities could be expected. Should this be a cause for
concern? How about introducing better stove technology along with the
charcoal technique?
* CULTURAL DIFFERENCES & EDUCATION - "The emissions from the charcoal
stoves
used in Kenya-as well as those from burning wood-are also higher than
previously believed because the researchers took into account the fact
that
many Kenyans keep their stoves burning all day, Bailis says. This is
the
kind of reality that laboratory calculations don't often factor in,
although
he acknowledges that lab tests are crucial because they enable
measurements
to be taken that are very difficult to obtain in field conditions." (
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2003/apr/tech/kb_kenya.html
<== really good link)
^-- Being prepared to teach conservation might be something we should
think
about before sending people to the field.
Sorry for the book, but I'm trying to approach this from a broader
perspective to avoid making mistakes that we might later regret.
Professor
Barros, teaching my Engineering the Planet Focus course, has been
emphasizing this in lectures...
- Stephanie Chang
mattb...@gmail.com
Great! You've been added to the group membership. These are really
insightful thoughts too!
With regard to CO2 emissions: the charcoal production process clearly
releases greenhouse gases, as does the use of charcoal as a cooking
fuel. I'm not sure these emissions are significant enough (compared
to those of industrialized nations) to worry about from an
environmental perspective. An argument from the University of Hawaii
is that these gases would be naturally released from the degradation
of the biomass (http://www.hnei.hawaii.edu/bio.r3.asp). Of course,
fewer emissions and use of the waste energy would be preferred, but
this might be a good cooking fuel for the developing world for
economic reasons. It is something that we absolutely need to study
more. If biomass could be used to create a more "eco-friendly" fuel
(through some intermediary other than charcoal), we should shift our
focus to that.
The "burying charcoal for carbon sequestration and fertilizer" article
was interesting but I do not think the technique would be practical in
the developing world. More research can be done, but I'd imagine
there are more effective fertilizers (like cow dung) and that future
CO2 emission reduction is not of immediate concern for these people.
I think collaboration with D-Lab itself would be amazing--they've got
several years of experience and seem very dedicated. Also,
collaboration for the purpose of cost-reduction would be a good idea.
What if we challenged other EWB chapters to a biomass charcoal
contest? Perhaps EWB National would support this...
On health: Amy Smith (the D-Lab coordinator) is so focused on charcoal
because it's a cleaner indoor fuel than wood or dung. She might have
more information on long-term exposure risks. We could also study
this. And coupling this project with stove design is a *really* good
idea. Do you have any experience or ideas on this?
I'm going to move all of this into the discussion section of the
Google page so we don't lose track of it...
Are you available to go material-hunting this weekend? See you later.
Matt
> to be taken that are very difficult to obtain in field conditions." (http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2003/apr/tech/kb_keny...
patric...@gmail.com
releasing only the carbon dioxide that the plants had absorbed in the
first place" <http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18589/page1/>. A
net-zero emission rate is better than burning fossil fuels, because
that releases the carbon stored millions of years ago. But that would
not be why our charcoal from biomass waste project would reduce CO2
emissions, since people in the developing world cannot afford fossil
fuels. People typically use wood to make charcoal, and to get wood,
people cut down trees and rarely replant them, reducing the capability
of the Earth to absorb CO2. Okay, one tree, no big deal, but since the
majority of the developing world uses charcoal for fuel, which for the
most part comes from cutting down trees, this could make a significant
impact. By creating an alternative to using wood for charcoal, we can
prevent deforestation and decrease CO2 emissions.
What are the other benefits could our project create? Preventing
deforestation would control soil erosion, halt desertification,
maintain the water table, preserve habitat for animals, etc. According
to Dr. Barros, deforestation on a large scale can decrease
precipitation over large areas by removing the "green" water
respirated by vegetation. In terms of health, charcoal burns very
cleanly since it is almost entirely carbon, but the process to make
charcoal is very smoky. It would be better to burn charcoal cleanly
while indoors for cooking and burn off all the air pollutants outside
than to burn wood indoors, where the pollutants are still present in
the fuel source. This is my guess at the reasoning behind Amy Smith's
claim that charcoal has health benefits.
Stephanie, great questions! That's definitely something important I
learned from Dr. Barros too. I agree with Matt on finding an expert on
the environmental impact of charcoal. Or we could find a student who
has done some online research on charcoal for a class. Would it be
possible to incorporate charcoal into an Engineering Frontiers Focus
project?
Patrick