EWB, charcoal; 11.4 binding meeting notes
Matt Ball
We had a wonderful meeting Sunday, completing 16 briquettes using
various binders (see the attached photo). Details of the briquette
composition are available on the website in a spreadsheet called "binder
work." There are also photos of our exploits here:
http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/dukeewbcharcoal/ If you have
more pictures of yesterday, it would be great if you could add them to
that photobucket account; id: dukeewbcharcoal, pass: saveyourcob.
The briquettes will be dried this week and we'll attempt to burn them
next Sunday. I was thinking we would take data on each briquette's
energy content, burn duration, and also just qualitatively see how well
they ignite. Please email me back if you have any ideas on the proper
equipment/methods we'll need to accomplish this. If anyone has a
chemistry teacher or TA they could talk to about this, that would be great.
In the very near future, this group will begin transitioning out of a
pure focus on biomass charcoal. I'd like us to expand our efforts into
other regions of indoor air pollution-reduction. I've heard interest in
messing around with efficient stoves and creating emissions detectors.
So...read and ponder on these things; we'll begin discussing them
intensely soon. I haven't looked too much at this site, but it looks to
have a ton of content: http://bioenergylists.org/
Lastly! I recently listened to a great TED talk from Jacqueline
Novogratz about work in Africa, engagement, and investing in local
solutions. Here's the link:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/91 I think it's well worth
15 minutes (she starts with a pretty incredible story too).
I'll email everyone later in the week about the specifics of this
upcoming meeting; until then, farewell.
Matt
