Recent donations
Our humble thanks to the following people for helping us make the effort to end charcoal a success: Carol L. $200, Eileen C. $100, and Katie L $50. Your donations will go directly to supporting the very project you see below. Thank you!

Progress in Rumangabo
Last week, Virginia and Francky trained our new press workers and despite a brief encounter with an “unfriendly”, perservered and finished the week successfully. The workers seemed very eager and enthusiastic about their new job opportunity.

Virginia watches the teams take to briquetting like they were old hands at it

Gathering materials to be crushed and converted to compost

Gaining an appreciation for the hammer mill - workers use the old fashioned mortar and pestle. Your donations will help us purchase a hammer mill, which reduces a team’s labor by 75%!

Getting a feel for a good mix

The pressing competition in full-swing

The winning team takes home much needed rice and beans

Francky will be beginning full-time work in Rumangabo on July 21st. As with the hammer mill, your donations will help pay his salary and those of the press workers. Once our production dries and is ready for use, we will begin selling it locally with the hopes of having our sales finance the Rumangabo team. Our goal is to have the entire village weaned off of charcoal within 6 months. Thank you all for following our progress — and for your generous contributions!

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Recent donations
Wow! A huge thank you to Natalia R. in California who gave us a $500.00 donation this month. Natalia did her thesis on Grauer’s gorillas and has been a steadfast supporter of the mountain gorillas as well. Judy B, thank you, too, for your generous donation. People like you make it all possible!

The latest news
Ultimately, we began exploring biomass briquettes as a way of saving mountain gorillas and the forests of Virunga, NP, but it’s becoming quite clear that we are going to be helping humans, too. It looks to be a win-win for everyone. The animals and forests will benefit from the reduction in deforestation and habitat destruction and people will benefit having access to a sustainable fuel that costs less. The current charcoal producers also stand to benefit through the creation of a new fuel market — one that is legal and not a dead-end. This week, we took one step closer to realizing our goal as Virginia Echavarria headed up to Rumangabo to start up a briquette operation at park headquarters with Ephrem Balole and ICCN Ranger Balemba.

Virginia arrived in Rumangabo on Tuesday with Francky Balole (no relation to Ephrem). Francky is one of the final candidates for the Briquette Assistant position that we posted in Bukavu and Goma in late June. With Belemba’s help, Ephrem hired 12 people from the displaced peoples’ camp. They will make up our initial press teams.

Francky takes a stove and briquettes home for a test during his training in Bukavu

Virginia and Francky headed up on Tuesday with material, and in classic Virginia-style, jumped right in. The first task was getting a feel for the area and seeing what exists up there in terms of available biomass. The answer: lots of leaves, which means lots of composting. We hope to augment this with waste products such as paper and sawdust, which reduce our labor requirements. They also got a feel for the facilities, such as where we will make the briquettes, store the materials and presses, as well the accommodations for our soon-to-be-named assistant. The next day, they gathered the workers and did a presentation on briquetting.

Newly hired press workers being briefed on the training schedule

Virginia’s presentation drew a far bigger crowd than expected. Look at her go!

Material preparation: Workers shredding and soaking waste paper from a Goma printer

My son Ty, inspired by all the paper shredding in Rumangabo, gets down to work himself

A team of new press workers and a new press getting to know each other

A worker laying out briquettes to dry

Franky leading a discussion about the pressing operation

Today, Virginia and Franky lead a competition amongst the teams to get an idea of how they were taking to the technology and how much they could produce. They were happily surprised to find that with a few days of training, the teams were producing 125 briquettes per hour. To put that in perspective, that’s enough briquettes made in one hour to supply cooking fuel to approximately 10 families of 8 people for a day — and for 35-40% less money. Virginia sent the workers home with stoves and free briquettes at the end of the day, so they could experience first-hand what it’s like to cook with the fuel they made. News about that and more coming soon…

As always, thanks go to the Legacy Foundation for their continued guidance!

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My apologies for the long silence in this blog, but please don’t get the wrong impression. A great deal has been happening in the effort to end charcoal. Before I get to that, though, I would like to send out a sincere “Thanks!” to those of you that have continued to support our efforts.

Donations
Our heartfelt thanks go out to Judy J. for her monthly donation of $30, John J. $200, Carrie C. $100, Theresa T. $80, Alex A. $50, Carmen C. $40, and Robin R. $15.

Biomass Briquettes
In our last bog entry, I spoke of my trip to Portland to do a 3-day briquette training with the Legacy Foundation. Since then, Virginia and I have been working closely on the Bukavu briquette pilot, and as those of you who follow her blog know, she has been very successful. Not only are people constantly approaching her to bring a press operation to their village, she has even managed to start selling the briquettes. Our biggest fear, which was that people wouldn’t accept the biomass briquettes as an alternative to charcoal - or “makala” as it is know in the DRC — proved to be wrong. Quite to the contrary, people have said that briquettes burn just like charcoal. The evidence for this is that people are actually willing to buy the briquettes instead of charcoal.

The next phase of the briquette project is to take our operation closer to Virunga NP, the heart of the charcoal trade. Ephrem will be bringing three additional presses to Virunga NP next week. Our goal is to eventually attract the charcoal producers into the briquette market and make them realize that future profits will come from briquettes, not charcoal. The reality is, cutting down the forests of Virunga NP is a financial dead-end, whereas the materials for briquettes — grass and leaves — exist in abundance and can be regrown much more rapidly, all of which translates into sustainability. Let’s not kid ourselves, economic incentives are more powerful than an appeal to peoples’ sense of doing what is “right” for the mountain gorillas — especially when many of these people support their families on $1.00 per day.

The Briquette Project’s Unsung Heroes
I would really like to acknowledge all the help we have received from some key people behind the scenes:

Kizito Nandaka and William Guyot from SoDeRu: Thank you for providing housing, a car, bike, petrol, Internet connection, and security for Virginia — and for all of your encouragement. Also, thanks for putting up with my late night calls!

Sue and Sam: Thank you so much for paying for the first press operation.

Sister Helena Albarracin and the others at the Bukavu hospital: Thank you for being so willing to give this technology a try and for all the resources that you have made available.

Solange Ngobobo of IFRADE in Kadutu: Thank you for your help hosting the first press operation.

The Legacy Foundation: Thank you for all your help and expertise — and good humor.

You are the best!

Bosch-Siemens protos plant-oil stoves
As mentioned previously, Bosch und Siemens Hausgerate GmbH in Munich, Germany has graciously agreed to provide us with 100 protos plant-oil stoves and spare parts to carry out a 3-month feasibility study. These stoves can burn a variety of plant oils, all of which can be sustainably grown in the Congo. Our stoves left Nanjing, China two weeks ago and should arrive in Goma by early August. I will be going to Leyte University in the Philippines to train on the stoves, learn how to grow and press plant oil, as well as to learn about marketing the stoves. From there, I will go to the Congo to train the trainers and help Ephrem with kicking off the pilot, and assist with further developing the briquette program.

Fundraising
As you know, it all boils down to money eventually. I am busy writing grant proposals in hopes of securing the financial backing needed to make these projects successful. Emmanuel and I will be holding several fundraisers in the United States this fall. Several of you have come forward and offered to help us organize a fundraiser in your city — thank you. If you think you might be interested as well, please let us know. And, your donations to this blog continue to be a major help. With each biomass press we buy for $200, we can supply full-time employment for 8 people and get 100 families off of charcoal. Never underestimate the power of your contributions!

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Can something as simple as a briquette made from grass and leaves make a difference in the survival of the mountain gorilla? The answer is a resounding YES!! We have been busy working on finding alternatives to the forest charcoal being produced deep in mountain gorilla habitat. As you may know, charcoal production is decimating the last populations of mountain gorillas.

I just got back from a 3-day briquette making seminar with Richard and Joyce Stanley of the Legacy Foundation. They have been “briquetting” for 17 years and have led the introduction of biomass briquettes all over Africa. As yet, they haven’t been to Congo, but are happy to see that WildlifeDirect is leading the charge.

My biggest concern has been whether or not the people of the Congo will accept the briquettes. As you know, old habits die hard. After cooking a meal for 10 people using just a metal pan as a stove, I gained a new confidence in the viability of the biomass briquettes. For starters, have a look at the following pictures of the briquettes being burned:

Start-up: First we got a little pile of kindling going and then set the briquettes on top with the holes facing upward (this is about 5 minutes after lighting). To make up for not having air holes in the bottom of the stove, we propped the briquettes up on pebbles to allow for air flow. We also positioned the briquettes close together, which helps them burn better.

15 minutes out: Very HOT and burning without visible smoke.

“The PhD is in the finger tips…”
That’s Richard’s mantra. Perhaps the biggest challenge to the briquette maker is getting the mix right. This is where science becomes an art. The first step is to gather all of the “green” biomass that is going to be part of the briquette. Only charcoal fines and sawdust are ready to go “as is”. Everything else must be gathered, dried, ground or thrashed, and composted. The composting is the big challenge because it can sit around and seem to be doing nothing, and then all of a sudden, take off. The time between being at a standstill and turning into ash can be a matter of 24-48 hours. So, the briquetter must pay close attention, knowing when the mix is kicking into high gear and then stopping it before it starts to turn into soil — or worse, into ash. A perfectly composted mix will feel woody and granular, not muddy. It’s all in the feel. There is no setting a timer. Once the compost is ready, it’s time to make the briquette “slop”. Getting the proportions right is again, by feel. Once sawdust and small amounts of shredded and soaked paper have been added (if available), it’s time to test the mixture. Here are the steps:

Squeeze the mix

Open the hand: the mix should form into a mass and leave the imprint of your hand.

Hold the squeezed mass vertically and gently shake it. It should not fall apart. It’s easier to see the imprint of my fingers in this shot.

Press the material. A good mix will hold its shape perfectly. The corners will be sharp and the briquette will come out of the mold without breaking apart.

The beauty in these briquettes is that they are made from what has been considered, up to this point, waste. Furthermore, the material is available locally, so there are virtually no transportation costs. And, once the burn characteristics of the briquettes are understood, they burn very similarly to charcoal. If introduced to the marketplace properly, the presence of biomass briquettes should dramatically reduce the consumption of illegal forest charcoal. That’s good for mountain gorillas and people alike.

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Robert here.

I want to share some more about the discovery process that has been going on with alternative fuels program. Our network of contacts in the world of alternative fuel and stove technologies has grown exponentially thanks to an international group of great people who are openly sharing their ideas, in hopes of ending deforestation, helping the rest of the species that share the planet with us — and helping people. The Legacy Foundation has been the common denominator in all of this. They have graciously welcomed us into their community and as a result, we have been in touch with some incredibly helpful people.

Last week started with an hour Skype conversation with Crispin, the head of New Dawn Engineering in Swaziland. Richard at the Legacy Foundation had alerted the alternative fuels community to the problems Virginia was having with smoking briquettes and Crispin jumped right in with suggestions. He, in turn, passed the alert on to an even larger group. As a result of that email, later in the day, I had three exchanges with George in Gambia who offered his advice, too. Then on Monday, Richard of the Legacy Foundation invited me to come to Portland, Oregon for three days of training. He went to the trouble of contacting the two groups that hired him to do the seminar and asked if “a guy who is trying to help the mountain gorillas” could join them. Both groups gave a resounding “yes”. My tuition? Cook a meal for the group. Being a foodie, it feels like they are letting me off easy. Come May 22-24, I’ll be hanging out with these folks and learning all that I possibly can.

So, instead of being all alone in our search for new technologies, we have a global community of experts willing to help. The importance of this support can’t be overstated. Aside from the obvious benefits of so much intellectual capital (and new friends), personally, it makes me feel as though I am living up to my fiduciary responsibility to those of you who have donated funds to this program. You can rest assured that we are not shooting from hip, but rather carefully researching the best ways to invest your hard earned money. And, through all of this research and collaboration, the way forward is beginning to come into focus.

Donations: Thank you Alex P. for your $50.00 contribution!

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Hello all, this is Robert.

Amidst all the terribly disturbing news about the elephant massacre in the park and the continued burning of the Virunga forests for illegal charcoal, there actually is some good news. First off, I want to thank those of you that donated your hard earned money to help us this month: Carrie A. $100, Carmen E. $40 and our anonymous donor who contributed $50. Thank you!!

BSH - WildlifeDirect Alliance
We have finalized and signed an agreement with Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) to bring 100 of their Protos plant oil stoves to Goma for a pilot test. We are working hard to get the shipping from Nanjing, China to Mombasa/Goma in order. As you might imagine, there is a lot of paperwork required to get our shipment successfully through customs. The BIVAC certificate, our biggest hurdle, should be issued soon, and once it has, the shipment will be on its way to Goma.

Protos Stove Training
In the beginning of June, we plan to attend an intensive one-week training at Visayas State University in Cebu, Philippines. The Philippines are the site of BSH’s largest Protos project, and as such, the best place for training. Our training will include operation and maintenance of the Protos plant oil stove, fabrication of Protos parts, strategy of marketing the Protos plant oil stove, Jatropha seedling production and plantation establishment, and process & equipment for the production of plant oils from coconut, and Jatropha, and other oil plants.

We will also be spending a significant amount of time with the local villagers using the stoves on a day-to-day basis, in hopes of getting those critical pieces of advice that only come from those who are using the stoves in a real-world, rural setting.

Biomass Briquettes as a Charcoal Alternative
As reported a few weeks ago, I put together my own briquette with the help of the Legacy Foundation. Virginia and I had several back-and-forth Skype sessions (her building a press in Bukavu and me building mine in Boulder), in an effort to make sure that we both ended up with a briquette press and not a go-kart. As many of you know, she got her press back from the wood shop, and they did a great job — true craftsmen. She and the abused women that she is working with are making great headway. See for yourself. The press I made came out fine, but I wouldn’t put myself in the same league as the Congolese wood workers.

Laying out the grid for the piston cylinder holes which let water exit during pressing

Drilling the first holes. Only 210 to go…

The finished press. The piston and cylinder gets placed on the bottom beam.

The Briquette Challenges Ahead
Creating biomass briquettes that fully combust and don’t create too much smoke is one of the big challenges. Scrap paper, which acts as a binder, makes for easy briquette making, but the downside is excess smoke. Briquettes made of grass and leaves tends to burn cleaner, but require up to a few weeks of composting before the feedstock can be pressed. None of these issues are unsurmountable, but it will take time to get the hang of making the perfect briquette.

Another issue is output. Although a single press with 6 workers can put out 1000 briquettes per day, we will have to find a way to increase production to the point of being able to compete with charcoal. I have been sending out all sorts of inquiries and doing Google searches, trying to find a more automated way to produce the briquettes. And, although I haven’t found anyone mass producing briquettes yet, the inquiries have led me to many of the experts in the field of briquetting and high-efficiency stoves.

Today, for example, I spoke with people at the University of Colorado Engineering School who are working in this area. In fact, a group of them is leaving for Nepal tomorrow to head up a briquette and stove project in Eastern Nepal. I also spoke with someone at Colorado State University’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory. Among projects like creating biofuel from algae, they are also working on high-efficiency stoves for developing countries. And, of course, the Legacy Foundation and it’s network of briquetters and stove makers continues to provide invaluable guidance. With minds like this working the issue, I can’t help but be optimistic amidst the recent rash of bad news.

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In my last post, I talked about all of the various stuff or “residues” that can be used to make briquettes — to replace illegal forest charcoal. Although there are definitely some nuances to making a good briquette, it seems pretty feasible. But what about building the press itself? We are looking into the feasibility of bringing briquette making to the displaced peoples camps and elsewhere in the Congo, but really don’t have a good feeling for what it takes to build a briquette press, so I decided to try and build one. I figure that by building a press, I’ll better understand the challenges that will be faced by those trying to do the same in Congo. Armed with a press building manual from the Legacy Foundation, I headed to the lumber yard to buy my materials.

Getting the materials
The wood required is basic 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 stock, which is readily available in the DRC. Very basic cuts need to be made to get the various pieces to the required dimensions. I cheated by using power tools, but hand tools could easily do the same thing, they would just take longer. The other materials needed are 3/4-inch gas pipe, to be used for pivot points on the press and as a piston guide, eight bolts, 4-inch PVC pipe, and a couple of metal “washers” that attach to a wood piston that slides through the PVC pipe and compresses the briquette material.

Measuring and cutting
This part of the process went quickly, taking only about an hour and a half. Without power tools, I think it would take about 4-5 hours. The only other tool needed is a framing square.

Cheating: Using a power saw and drill instead of a hand saw and manual drill

Preserving the wood
Because the press is going to be used in a wet environment, it’s important to protect the wood against moisture damage. I used a non-toxic water-based deck oil, but linseed oil or even motor oil will work fine. This step will literally add years to the life of the press.

Oiled and ready to be put together

Putting the puzzle together
Who needs directions!? Hmm… I guess I do. This is where things started to get a little more challenging. Constructing a press doesn’t seem to be that difficult, but one can’t wing it, especially when it comes to the piston assembly, which, I’m still working on. Virginia, who has been busy buying the materials for her own press near Bukavu, may run into difficulties if she finds a fabricator that thinks he knows everything (the kind of guy whose first move is to throw away the manual when putting something new together). I’m sure she’ll keep him honest. And, it’s not just about following directions. Things such as installing the pivot pipes and cotter pins require being methodical and exacting. If one tries to slam these parts of the puzzle into place, they will have a press that teeters and groans, and will in all likelihood, not last very long.

So far, so good…

Next steps
Tomorrow, I’ll put the top beam and handle assembly together and drill the holes for the cotter pins, which will keep the pivot pipes from falling out. And, once I make the metal washers for the piston, we can take a close look at where the actual briquette is formed — and how.

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Time to get our hands dirty. In my last post, I spoke of why cooking briquettes made of agricultural residue and other dry biomass can be a great alternative to illegal charcoal production in the Virunga National Park — or most anywhere for that matter. Now let’s see what it takes to actually make these briquettes.

Get your residues
To begin with, you have to gather your residues. Sounds a bit comical doesn’t it? “Well, I’m going out looking for residue today…” OK, so I’m a residue nerd. What we need is any biomass residue — by that I mean anything that once grew out of the ground or is made from something that did — that will readily burn. That leaves us (pardon the pun…) a lot of options, but most likely, we’re talking about collecting leaves, grasses, rice husks, jatropha or moringa olifeira husks, coconut husks, coffee husks, corn husks, straw, and the like. We’ll need about 125 -150 kg of dry material per day to keep one press busy. If we can come upon sawdust and paper scraps we may be able to reduce this amount by as much as 40%.

Dry and pulverize your residues
One of the keys to a good briquette is that it compresses well and doesn’t fall apart. In order to achieve this, the fibers making up the briquette must interlock and stick together. This means that all your materials being used must be ground or pulverized before being pressed. In the most primitive (and slow) briquette making operations, a mortar and pestle is used. As the Legacy Foundation points out, though, this approach can mean that briquette makers are spending 70% of their time hand grinding. This could be a major disincentive to people trying to make the switch from illegal forest charcoal to residue briquettes. In more advanced operations, however, a hand-cranked grinder can be used — or even a modified chipper or lawn mower.

Make your residue slurry
Once the mix of residues has been ground, it’s time to turn it into a damp slurry. The goal here is to create a mixed mush of all your ingredients. As you might imagine, this is where all of the various residues starting sticking together and interlocking, which is the key to making a briquette that doesn’t fall apart. But, because our mix still has a lot of it’s organic structure left, it’s still going to want to resist being pressed into a tight and compact briquette. We need to get our slurry ingredients to relax and get comfortable with the idea of being pressed tightly together with a bunch of residues that they don’t know. This process is similar to the breaking down of wood lignin in the paper making, except here, we aren’t using toxic chemicals.

Residues that compost together, stick together
To get our various residues to relax, we’ll need to spread them out on a big sheet of black plastic, and then cover them with more of that same black plastic. For the next several days or weeks, depending on conditions, the residues will be having a “bacterial social”. All sorts of composting bacteria will be working to soften the attitudes of our residues, convincing them that true love comes only with closeness. The trick here, though, is not to overdo the composting - or the love. We only want to soften our residues, not turn them into soil. If we’ve put on a good decomposition party, we’ll have a group of disparate residues that are dying to be pressed into briquettes.

Hey, where’s the press?!
Detail, details… looks like we have all this great briquette mix, but no press. Better get on that before our residues have a change of heart. Be right back…

Next Post: Building a briquette press…

DONATIONS
A big “thank you” goes out to Alisa Y. who donated $100.00, Jennifer E. who donated $35.00, Chris and Kristi K., and Scott and Cindy N. who donated $25.00. Thanks for being a part of the solution!

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From Malawi to Peru, people are quickly discovering that cutting down forests to make charcoal is just about the most inefficient way to produce cooking fuel. And, it turns their once beautiful forests into moonscape rife with soil erosion. Until now, it appears that this realization has skipped right over the Congo. For the last several decades, the forests of the Virunga National Park have been getting cut down at an alarming rate to make charcoal, and in the process, half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas have found their forest homes turning into grasslands.

Charcoal - Inefficient you say?
To put it mildly. Fuel wood used for charcoal production loses an incredible 75% of its heating capability in the process of being turned from fuel wood to charcoal. Once you factor in inefficient combustion resulting from primitive stove technologies – or in many cases no stoves at all – charcoal loses another 15-18% of it’s heating capability, resulting in a fuel that is about 6% efficient. So, the dirty secret is that one of the world’s most amazing animals, the mountain gorilla, is being driven to extinction for the sake of a fuel that loses 94% of it’s heating value by the time it cooks a meal — not that any efficiency could justify the mountain gorillas’ demise.

Photo courtesy of the Legacy Foundation

How organic mixed waste briquettes out compete traditional charcoal
According to the Legacy Foundation, a veritable alternative fuel think tank, “although non-woody biomass has only 75-80% of the heat value of woody biomass per unit weight, the briquette far outperforms wood in open fire conditions”. This is due to the plug shape of the pressed briquette and its’ hollow center. These briquettes burn largely from the inside out. The center hole acts as a flu, allowing plenty of air to flow up into the briquette, ensuring complete combustion. The unburned exterior of the briquette serves as insulation, thereby allowing the center to burn very hot. All this adds up to a far more efficient burn. Charcoal? Bring on the briquette revolution!

Next post: Making briquettes from forest and agricultural waste

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It’s time for all of us to do a little brainstorming.

Just brainstorming here, but I think it is high time that all the parties come together in one place to find a holistic solution. I’m thinking of a WildlifeDirect sponsored Alternative Energy Summit to be held in Goma. Every stakeholder would have a place at the table… experts from the international community would be invited to share their expertise… big philanthopies would be asked to help… Former President Clinton would be asked to open and close the summit… Pie in the sky? Not to my thinking, but I want to hear from you.

Please join this brainstorming session. I’ve got to believe there is a way forward.

.

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