Small Scale Biomass makes progress with Daxu Bio-Energy in China

"Beijing Shenzhou Daxu Bio-energy Technology Company Ltd (Daxu) has succeeded in developing an innovative stove design that replaces coal by burning widely available crop waste as well as burning wood much more efficiently. Most families in China still cook using stoves that burn coal or wood which has led to severe deforestation and dangerous levels of indoor air pollution, particularly from coal use. Crop waste is widely available in China yet very few stove designs have been able to burn this waste effectively. The Daxu stove is not only designed to burn crop waste, either loose or in briquettes, it is also 40% efficient, produces hardly any smoke, cuts cooking and heating costs by 50% and, if it replaces a traditional coal burning stove, it can saves around eight tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. With its two hot plates, it also allows families to cook a stir-fry dish and steamed rice at the same time. Some Daxu stove models also come with a back boiler which provides hot running water and heating to rural families, often for the first time. It is hardly surprising that since September last year, 25,000 models have been sold, with 10,000 sold in the first three months of 2007. There is enormous potential for introducing this technology throughout China, since over 20 million wood and coal stoves are sold each year."

Click here for the Ashden Awards YouTube Video:  DAXU

Click here for the casestudy (PDF):  Ashden DAXU Case Study

Banana Waste Briquettes

Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, are well on their way to develop a method of transforming certain African crop waste—banana waste, in particular—into a useable, efficient fuel source which doesn’t require intensive labor or use of sophisticated equipment. 

In some places such as Rwanda, bananas are a staple crop, used in food and beverages in a variety of different ways. The remaining parts of the banana—the leaves, stems and peel—are not utilized, according to doctoral candidate Joel Chaney. Chaney realizes the potential for such waste, and is optimistic about the possibility of using banana waste to produce briquettes for cooking and heating purposes. 

The leaves and skin of the banana are ground into a pulpy material using a meat mincer, and in order to create a moldable material, mixed with sawdust. In Africa, the banana pulp would be mixed with dried banana stems. After being compressed into briquette shapes, the material is then baked in an oven—in Africa, it would be left out to bake in the sun for a number of days. . . . 

. . . .An efficient wood-fired stove was one of the appropriate technologies selected for development, Clifford said. “The stove work started with building a bread oven for a Ugandan village, then a PhD project looking at making an efficient stove for Eritrea. Joe’s (Chaney) work flowed on from the stove projects—it seemed natural to look at the fuel as well as the stove.” 

Clifford said he has another project looking at how crofters on the Isle of Lewis (Scotland) can turn waste cardboard into briquettes. At present, they have no recycling facility for cardboard, so it ends up in a landfill.” In the meantime, said Clifford, crofters are burning coal and even returning to cutting and burning peat due to increased fuel costs, so briquetting the cardboard may be an appropriate solution. “Appropriate technology isn’t just aimed at the developing world,” he said. 

Read the full story here:

Researchers develop banana waste briquettes

Sustainable Inventions featured in Forbes

As featured on Forbes.com:

Harnessing a mix of creative thinking and engineering know-how, entrepreneurs have come up with a host of affordable, eco-friendly solutions to everyday problems ranging from cheaper solar panels in California to irrigation challenges for small farmers in Myanmar. Some of these innovations have already proved to be commercially viable; others are still in development, but on their way to market. All have the potential to make big changes.

For the slide show of all 10 inventions click below:

         Original Article:  Forbes 10 Eco-Friendly Inventions

The Construction of a Mixed Material Oven

The Construction of a Mixed Material Oven (Video)

This is an increasingly popular video that demonstrates the basic steps that go towards building a mixed material oven.  

This particular design was developed for the United Nations as a collaborative effort by technicians from a Chilean and an Argentine NGO during the 1980s.  

In cooperation with the video's creator, iDW is currently working to make plans available as a downloadable PDF in both English and Spanish.

Subscribe to iDW for updates on plans to make your own oven and other innovative projects!