Biomass Charcoal in Uganda 2009
Charcoal is a primary fuel source for much of the developing world. To make charcoal, people gather wood from nearby forests and burn the wood in anoxic conditions (pyrolization). Charcoal is primarily used for cooking and boiling water. The advantages of burning charcoal is that it has higher energy density than wood, and it burns cleaner. However, trees are typically not replanted after they are cut for charcoal, and charcoal is a leading cause of deforestation in the developing world.
STUDENT PROJECT
The biomass charcoal team works to create charcoal from agricultural wastes that are typically discarded, a renewable alternative to cutting down trees for charcoal. Through the process of pyrolysis, corn cobs, peanut shells, and rice husks can be converted to charcoal “fines.” Further binding and pressing of the fines creates a briquette similar to those used in a typical barbecue. Once we perfect these techniques, we plan to teach them at the Rural Agency for Sustatinable Development (RASD) through a DukeEngage program. During the ’08-’09 school year, the Biomass Charcoal Team has revisited the challenge of producing a high-quality and marketable biomass briquettes. This summer we plan to send one student back to the Rural Agency of Sustainable Development in Nkokonjeru, Uganda, to refine our methods and pass the technology on to one individual. Over the past two semesters, we have remade the briquette presses and we are customizing the general process to best suit coffee shells, as we don’t have enough experience in this realm. We have been using peanut shells to mimic the properties of coffee shells.
