The Charcoal Project

Briquettes

Nicaragua: Of Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Crocodiles, and Energy Poverty

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

In October 1998 I walked out of a Costa Rican jungle after narrowly escaping a disastrous film shoot with crocodiles.

The near fiasco had nothing to do with filming the animals up close in their natural habitat. Instead, what almost sunk the project was the relentless pounding of a tropical rain that soaked everything and everyone.

Back in our hotel in San Jose we discovered the cause of the rain was a major hurricane that had slowly swept across the Central American isthmus, causing massive death and destruction in Guatemala, Honduras, and in my home country, Nicaragua. Nearly 11,000 people were killed. The flooding caused extreme damage, estimated at over $5 billion (1998 USD, $6.5 billion 2008 USD).

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The East African Briquettes Company points the way to sustainable biomass alternative

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

Nicholas Harrison is the driving force behind one new idea in Tanzania: the East Africa Briquettes Company. Harrison purchased the factory in Tanga in March 2009 where he now produces the “mkaa bora,” a briquette that burns “longer, hotter, and cheaper” than conventional vegetable charcoal.

The country consumes about one million tons of wood charcoal each year, so the market is huge. And with a deforestation-to-replacement rate of 3-to-1, there is little chance Tanzania will be able to keep pace with the country’s demand for charcoal, especially in the growing capital.

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Alternative Fuel Promises to Aid Mountain Gorilla Conservations

Posted on by Jean Kim Chaix

A new alternative fuel project recently launched in Rwanda promises to combat the deforestation of national parks where mountain gorillas live. The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) and Art of Conservation, have partnered together to introduce the new alternative fuel technology–fuel briquettes composed of recycled materials that can be made easily with simple wooden presses–to the communities living near mountain gorilla habitat. Continue reading→

On Environmental Brink, Haiti Scrambles for a Lifeline

Posted on by charcoalproject

“With any reforestation campaign, you have to find first a solution for energy.” — Antonio Perera, Program Manager, UNEP, Haiti The satellite image compares forest cover along the Haiti-Dominican Republic Border. A recent New York Times article explains what happens when a country’s energy-poor population exhausts its last remaining fuelwood resources. The country is Haiti and the picture painted is not pretty. With much of its forest cover gone, the poorest (and oldest) developing country in the Western Hemisphere’s stands now on the brink of environmental catastrophe. The story, reported by Nathaniel Gronewold of Greenwire, the web-based environmental policy and Continue reading→

Amy Smith demonstrates how to make briquettes

Posted on by charcoalproject

Folks, We received from Amy Smith (MIT/D-Lab) in today’s post a link to a ten minute YouTube video that is essentially a how-to-make-your-own-briquettes video. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqI63IEg3MM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1] What is astonishing is how simple the process can be. From converting the vegetable material into charcoal in a regular 55-gallon oil drum, to mixing it with a binding agent (cassava paste, in this case), and then using the most elegantly simple tools to churn out perfect little briquettes. It’s like witnessing the invention of the wheel! The entire process is very straightforward, although a few steps could use some clarification. For example, we were Continue reading→