Fueling Change

Category: Stoves | Date: May 22 2008 | By: endingcharcoal

We shared experience in briquette technology with Virginia in Bukavu in order to learn more before implemeting a full programme in Goma. Virginia is working with 2 groups of women from IFRADE and from the nuns of Dorotee di Cemmo at the General Hospital of Bukavu. With abused women using the wooden press , she is making briquettes from different biomass: fresh leaves, grass, shaving, charcoal residue, fermented leaves, etc.

View of different Kinds of biomass 

Making briquettes with Eucaliptus fresh leaves

By the colour, there are three different kinds of biomass : fresh Eucaliptus leaves at the right, charcoal residue with fermented Eucalyptus leaves (dark colour) and tea residue (4 brown colour).

We tried also to burn some dryied briquettes comparing its combustion to charcoal.

We heated 1 liter of water with the same quantity of biomass (briquettes and charcoal). What did we learn?

1. Charcaol is still more energetic than briquettes, water boiled before.

2. Stove’s quality is very critic. With  bad stove, briquette’s combustion can make smokes with few energy.

Therefore we tried to make an ameliorated stove with recycled USA oil cans.

Briquettes burnt well but when we tried to boil water, it made smokes because of a lack of air. The pan was directly on the flame.

This smoke deasapered when removed the pan on the stove.

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