Madagascar ecological republic, a utopia?

[chatelot16]

Is pyrolysis a complicated process?

not really complicated, but you need equipment: welding iron, piping

in France, producers of charcoal for barbecue work with the current bad method, there is no shortage of wood so they do not want to invest to do better

in Africa there are places where there is a lack of wood, but who lack even more money to buy scrap metal to do better

the principle of pyrolysis is to put the wood in closed steel cylinders and to heat by a hearth: the wood transforms into charcoal without loss because it is completely sheltered from the air

the wood gives off condensable vapors of methanol acetone and acetic acid ... what does not condense is combustible gas which in a well-made installation is largely sufficient for heating the cylinders

where there is a lot of sun, it would even be possible to heat by solar oven, to keep all the gas to run a generator at night when there is no more sun

the world is badly done: with us in France we have all the material we want but we do nothing good because we are too rich and we have the means to continue to waste

in countries where it would be useful to do better we don't do it because we don't have the financial means

[dede2002]

Interesting ,

In Africa, there are people who work scrap metal very well, all you need is a model.

In addition, with the money of the WB, even go into debt as much as it is useful!

According to wikipedia there is almost as much gas as coal by weight, it's huge.

A + good day

[chatelot16]

the proportion of coal gas varies according to the way in which one heats: when one overheats the already hot wood at high temperature, receive the water vapor emitted by this center of the load of wood which just begins to heat, and this steam of water destroys charcoal: gasifier effect ... and suddenly charcoal is lighter and less valuable

to maximize the production of charcoal a more methodical heating is necessary, so that the water vapor and the CO2 emitted by the wood at the beginning of heating does not pass on the charcoal almost finished cooking

I can not unfortunately give you a model or ready made plan

what I have in mind is the result of everything I learned about the old book of 1800, about the more recent technology books, coke oven, blast furnace, gasifier, where there is information to take ... I did some small-scale experience

I especially thought a lot about how to make the material simple to build and use ... it is important not to imitate the modern material always too complicated therefore too expensive and impossible to maintain by means of the edge

you have to adapt to the materials available: in 1850 we used a lot of cast iron, because welding did not exist, and it was the best way of the time ... now we do it easier and cheaper in ordinary welded steel ... and I have the impression that in some cases we are interested in using stainless steel

with ordinary steel it must be thick enough to withstand corrosion ... with stainless steel we can build with very thin sheet metal and compensate for the high price by the thinness

[dede2002]

An idea to study in any case!

Among other things, to replace the countless diesel power plants that electrify cities ...

You write:

I will be for a label, as it exists for wood or fish ...

Do you really believe that a bogus label would change anything?
Do you really believe that it is enough that the destruction of nature (and of men) benefits the natives a little more for this to solve the basic problem?

The idea is the opposite, avoid destroying nature, and not harm the locals ....

[Ahmed]

In the countryside, improved stoves that use less wood are very interesting and easy to make by craftsmen and locally with varied and inexpensive materials.
If we add the use of "Norwegian kettles", the fuel savings are even more considerable.

These are two easy improvements that can help a lot of people; however, this will not change the overall situation, since even assuming a generalization of these practices, the quantities saved by some would be available for others ...

[Flytox]

In the countryside, improved stoves that use less wood are very interesting and easy to make by craftsmen and locally with varied and inexpensive materials.
If we add the use of "Norwegian kettles", the fuel savings are even more considerable.

These are two easy improvements that can help a lot of people; however, this will not change the overall situation, since even assuming a generalization of these practices, the quantities saved by some would be available for others ...

... for the waste of others ...

[Ahmed]

Yes, thank you for the precision, you perfectly understood what I meant!

[chatelot16]

with a principle like that useless to save money

saving money allows others to waste what we have saved

so it’s better to waste everything yourself so that others don't have to

seriously, charcoal is a good practical fuel: easy to light, easy to extinguish to recover what has not burned for the next use ... does not smoke so can be used indoors without chimney

[dede2002]

Compare the energy expenditure per capita and per day, between Madagascar and a "rich" country, and tell me who should save?

In this case, we are talking about recovery, and a way to limit the use of oil.

Valorization of a renewable energy, which is already consumed but with a lot of losses.

[Ahmed]

Chatelot16, it is important to encourage the use of simple techniques which are very important for rural populations and in particular women who have (among others!) the heavy task of ensuring the preparation of meals; it is also important to preserve the forest locally.
The technique is however insufficient in itself: it is not certain that the savings made will benefit the families who make these improvement efforts, it has not been proven that the time saved by women is not used to new work, there is no guarantee either that the preserved resource will not become, on another scale, an economic issue ...

Good intentions are not enough, but modest and moral considerations must suffice to justify this kind of action.