Three benefits in one product developed by a company from Kampala, the capital of Uganda: bricks made from agricultural waste residues will allow you to save energy and money, save on cutting down trees and clean the environment from this agricultural waste * When will this be implemented in Israel?
One of the environmental problems in developing countries is the cutting down of trees for combustion or charcoal production. Also in other continents, but mainly in Africa, you can see vast areas where the forest or grove has disappeared, the trees that were or the result can be seen along the roads as bags of charcoal offered for sale.
The consumption of charcoal damages every good plot and is a significant factor in the destruction of expanding areas and in causing floods and inundations in many areas. Even in our small country, which from a climatic point of view is mostly a desert or semi-desert, wild cutting of trees damages the forests and the environment. Of course, when cutting is a crime, the perpetrators must be dealt with harshly, but it is well known that when there is a demand for a certain product (and in the present case the demand stems from an essential need) there will be someone who will supply the product even at the price of a crime.
In East Africa, the demand for charcoal is high and the forests are being damaged... there is a solution, - Biomass briquettes - "biological mass" bricks that can be used as fuel for cooking and heating replace the use of charcoal. The bricks are produced by compressing plant waste from agriculture - dried poultry and animal manure, rice stalks, wheat, barley and corn, plant residues from peanut fields, coffee bean husks, sawdust from sawmills and more. All these are collected, mixed and beaten into bricks. The bricks are burning in the ovens
Designed and built especially for use in bricks, the ovens are produced in different sizes, small ones that can be carried or large ones that are fixed in place. The ovens are insulated and closed so that their use is economical and efficient and does not spread smoke.
According to one of the manufacturers in Kampala, Uganda, the cost of bricks to the consumer is about a fifth of charcoal, and they provide about 30% more energy, the correct use of bricks in rural areas saves damage to trees and the environment. The use of bricks in urban areas results in savings of up to 50% compared to the use of electricity or gas.
It is important to explain that even in luxurious hotels the use of charcoal for cooking and heating is common.
The brick factory in Uganda supplies the needs of the residents in its neighborhood. Farmers and shepherds as well as residents of urban settlements use the heating bricks and thus benefit the environment, once by saving on the use of mineral fuel, once again by preventing damage to vegetation and once again by cleaning the agricultural environment from plant waste. Abasi Kazibwe, manager of a coffee farm and a bean processing factory, started the initiative to produce fire bricks following the rise in fuel prices, which led to the demand for charcoal and consequently to the acceleration of deforestation.
Production and marketing of a substitute for charcoal and mineral fuel arouses the opposition of the coal producers as well as the opposition of fuel suppliers, and yet: in the immediate vicinity of the plant, more and more residents are switching to the use of heating bricks.
The only "disadvantage" of using bricks is the need for a dedicated oven, but these ovens are simple and cheap, so it is to be assumed and hoped that the use of bricks will penetrate everywhere and spread on the African continent and beyond.
With us: in the days when we read and hear morning news about the destruction / felling of trees, when the felling stems from the demand for fuel... it would be appropriate and correct to implement the use of firewood, bricks that will save forests and the environment.
Dr. Assaf Rosenthal, ecologist,
Tour guide/leader in Africa and South America.
For details: Tel. 0505640309 / 077-6172298,
Email: assaf@eilatcity.co.il
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After the publication of the list, Nir called me and told me that in his BRICO factory in the north they produce bricks from wood waste,
According to him, each brick weighing 1000-800 grams produces more
from 6000 calories, that is, almost twice as much as raw wood,
And only slightly less than oil!
The factory produces the bricks from waste (wood) collected in the environment
And the bricks are marketed for burning in "fireplaces" for heating or alternating
For lighting "picnic" bonfires, etc.
Since I did not know about the existence of the enterprise and since in my opinion such an enterprise constitutes a considerable contribution to the quality of the environment, I would like to publish the fact of the existence of a positive enterprise,
Below is the URL
http://brico.co.il/apage/13922.php
And again I was happy to hear from Nir
Thanks !
collect:
Anyone who has been to East Africa (eg Uganda) knows that forests are not cut down to be used for heating. The locals burn the forest to
to obtain more grazing and agricultural areas.
Firewood won't save the few forests left in Uganda.
The idea raised here by Ami Bachar, regarding the landfill
Waste in reduction areas is an interesting idea
I have not heard so far. How practical is it really?
Regarding the fuel question: I am with Moshe Katz. Bio Diesel
Just replacing one trouble with another. must
Switch to energy sources that are more suitable for the range
The long term: solar energy is the logical solution
In my opinion, despite the higher cost at the moment.
Another solution is geothermal energy: both
do not disturb the general energy balance of the earth,
In the end.
Ran
Listen to my 'Making History!', podcast
Biweekly on the history of science and technology.
http://www.ranlevi.blogspot.com
Regarding biofuels of all kinds (in response to Ami Bachar)
Biofuel is a normal fuel that is produced from organic materials such as corn, sugarcane and now it turns out cocoa too. The whole advantage is that now with the increase in fuel prices, growing it is becoming more and more financially profitable. It pollutes about the same as fossil fuel when its apparent advantage is that it can be grown. Does that mean that all the CO2 it contains actually comes from the atmosphere?!
But this is a big but! To grow it, forests are cleared until it contributes to warming! And worst of all, in order to grow it, farmers stop growing grain and food!!!
So the next time you hear about an increase in the prices of bread, corn, milk, meat, eggs (the animals eat grain that increases in price) and much more, you will know that you owe a thank you to some fat American who drives a car that consumes a liter per 4 kilometers and doesn't care if it's organic or fossilized There is enough money for both fuel and food. The next time you hear about famine in a third world country you will understand where it comes from. When you notice that the minus in your bank is getting bigger and bigger even though you don't buy anymore, you will realize that this is all from this nonsense.
post Scriptum.
Hard and toxic waste that cannot be neutralized and overcome should be buried in mitigation areas - between tectonic plates. This way the waste will be swallowed "forever" into the heart of the earth and we will never have to deal with it. In practice one has to find one of the reduction areas, dig a small hole in them, bury the waste and cover it. Over the years and with the tectonic shifts, the pit will eat away at its contents.
Nice and interesting idea. It also seems to me that we have not yet exhausted equal ideas in the field of fire. On the face of it, it seems that all the processing and collection and compression, etc., will result in a large investment for a given unit of energy, but if the inventors claim that this is still profitable and economical - then the matter should definitely be checked.
Man produces waste and it is very good if you know how to use it - for example, as here, in burning and creating energy. In addition to the use of by-products of the industry, it seems to me that the possibilities of biodiesel or microbial use to create energy have not yet been studied sufficiently and in depth. Recently we were informed about a method to create molecular hydrogen from bacteria that receive organic food (organic waste). This field is currently developing and we hope that in the future we will see green and cheap results for the benefit of all of us.