Charcoal | GVI Kenya

A Big Thank You

Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Shimoni Forest | Date: Sep 01 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hello all,

This blog today is mainly to say a huge thank you to the responses we’ve had regarding the issue of charcoal. Last week we wrote three blogs focusing on charcoal burning here in Shimoni forest; how it is done, why people do it, and finally a brief introduction into the alternatives available.

We had some great responses, with Kathy informing us that the BBC did a programme related to this subject recently, and that they were offering advice to anyone who would like to know more. And then Sherri pointed out the ‘ending charcoal’ site on our very own Wildlife Direct! The internet here has been playing up recently so I’ve only managed to have a brief look, but at first glance it appears both inspirational and genius!

It never fails to amaze me how lucky we are to be a part of this online network of like-minded people, groups and organisations that are all doing such fantastic work. It makes such sense as well – everyone can ask questions, share ideas, help out and support one another. I’m going to give the ‘ending charcoal’ blogs a good, solid read, and see what ideas I can plagiarise! Once we’ve got a prototype kiln and press up and running we can hopefully do our part by sharing ideas, mistakes and thoughts.

So again, thank you guys for your interest and support, and of course your super ideas. And here’s to us all working together for a brighter future!

Matt

Tags: BBC, charcoal, ideas, kiln, mistakes, network, press, prototype, Shimoni Forest, thoughts

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Charcoal - The Alternatives!

Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 27 2009 | By: gvikenya

Ok people, so in the last two blogs we’ve discussed how charcoal is made here in Shimoni forest, and how it is done mainly by desperate people with no other choice who, given the opportunity, would gladly do something else. So I’ve spent the last day fighting a battle with our temperamental internet connection to see what kind of alternatives I can find. I shall continue my search relentlessly, until we find an option that will work here.

Kenya’s coastal forests

All of the techniques I’ve manage to find so far all seem to revolve around a similar principle. One puts the organic material of choice into a large steel drum, burns it under low-oxygen conditions (to allow for carbonisation), mixes it with some sort of binding agent, and then presses it into charcoal briquettes. Depending on the organic material used, the methods differ slightly, but not by much. Here are some of the options…

Corn cobs
Get a 200 litre steel drum and fill it 1/3 full with dried corn cobs. Ignite the contents, and burn until the smoke disappears. Refill the drum approximately 2/3 full and reignite. Allow to burn until the smoke disappears. Allow the contents to cool, empty the drum and sprinkle the contents with water. Allow to dry in the sun, and then separate the “charcoal” from the ashes.
These were all the instructions given – they appear a bit basic and I’m skeptical about the quality of the resultant charcoal. Quick and easy though, so worth an experiment!

An earth-mound kiln

Coconut shells
Again, get a 200 litre steel drum. Cut a hole in the top (30cm diameter), and attach poles to the cut section so it can be used as a lid. Drill a series of small holes in the bottom of the drum and place the drum on stones to allow air to enter. Fill the drum 1/3 full with coconut shells, add a little bit of kerosene and ignite. Allow to burn for 5 minutes before putting the lid on. The colour of the smoke should change from black to white. Take the lid off, add more shells (up to 10kg’s apparently) and wait until more black smoke is produced (this means the new shells are burning). Repeat this process until the drum is full of charcoal. After 8 hours, remove the drum from the stones and seal the lid with mud so no oxygen at all can enter the drum. Leave in this state for 12 hours. Remove and sieve contents.

Sugarcane waste (bagasse)
This method is very similar to the above method. The instructions I found however are written by a student of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and are very detailed. She gives much more instruction with regards to the different stages and required airflow through the drum. This method differs in that once the initial carbonisation stage is over, the resultant charcoal “fines” need to be mixed with a binding agent. In this case she uses a porridge made from cassava – a hardy root vegetable.

Various organic material
I found another set of instructions that again, is a similar process to the ones above. It follows suit with the sugarcane method, and requires a binder. They suggest using soil with a high clay content. This method claims that almost any organic material can be used (coconut shells/husks, corn cobs, sugarcane bagasse, roots of vetiver grass, dry leaves etc.).

So there we have it. Finding all of that took a matter of a few hours. I think with a bit more digging, plenty more is out there. It is time for me to ask a small favour from all of you wonderful readers who would also like to see the end to the destruction of our beautiful forest. If anyone has any bright ideas about what we can use as a binding agent (we don’t have soil with high clay content, and I don’t think cassava is abundant here – I will check though), please throw them our way. Remember it has to be cheap (preferably free…!). And of course, if anyone has any information / ideas / websites / friends / contacts / suggestions about alternative charcoal – you know where we are!

I’ll keep you all updated on our experimentation progress…

Tags: bagasse, binding agent, briquettes, carbonisation, carbonised, cassava, charcoal, coconut husk, coconut shell, corn cobs, experimentation, kerosene, methods, MIT, organic material, oxygen, porridge, root vegetable, Shimoni Forest, smoke, steel drum, sugarcane

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Charcoal - The Real Issue…

Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Community Conservation, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: gvikenya

So everyone knows about the problems related to unregulated, inefficient and illegal charcoal burning. It’s very easy for one to sit back and point the finger at the people conducting these activities, labeling them criminals. The real issue however, is slightly more complex than that.

We have been conducting research in Shimoni forest for over three years, and have been working with the community group Friends of Shimoni Forest for two and a half years. Through all of this we have had a lot of experience with the issue of charcoal burning, and have countless meetings (both organized and impromptu) with the charcoal burners themselves. What we’ve found in the majority of cases, is that these people do not want to be charcoal burning any more than we do. The difference being, we have the luxury of choice.

The result of a charcoal pit

The vast majority of people in this area are living below the poverty line, and are desperately poor. They have families to feed and school fees to pay for, and they don’t have any choice. They know charcoal burning is illegal, and they know it does huge damage to the forest. Most of them would muc rather be doing something else, but if it comes down to feeding their families – it’s not even a choice. We have been asked by so may of them to find them alternatives, to offer them a choice. And if a choice was offered, they would happily give it up.

An earth-mound kiln ready to light

So that’s our mission. The solution to the problem is clear: find an alternative to charcoal burning. One thing we need to remember is that everyone in the entire area (and most of the country) use charcoal to cook. So not only do we need to find an alternative income for the burners themselves, but we need to find a charcoal replacement otherwise we will have only solved half of the problem.
The obvious way around this is combine the alternative livelihoods with the production of alternative, forest friendly charcoal!

To the internet! I will be back in the next day or two with what I’ve found…

Tags: , alternative livlihoods, charcoal, Charcoal Burning, criminals, Friends of Shimoni Forest, inefficient, poor, poverty line, Shimoni Forest, unregulated

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Charcoal Burning - The Technical Side

Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 25 2009 | By: gvikenya

If you cast your eyes back through some of the many blogs we’ve posted, you’ll see that plenty of them are about, or refer to, charcoal burning. We assume that most people have established what we are talking about – the means by which charcoal is produced. We thought however, it may be of interest to some people to know a bit more detail about this destructive and highly inefficient form of resource use.

About 47% of Kenyan households use charcoal, and total charcoal production is about 2.4 million tones (or 67 million bags weighing 36kg each). The widespread preference for charcoal is explained primarily by its affordability; it is the cheapest form of household cooking fuel (Kwale Management Team, 2009).

In Shimoni forest and the surrounding area, the majority of charcoal burning is done for subsistence purposes, and therefore on a relatively small scale when compared to commercial operations. The methods these subsistence charcoal producers use however, are basic and highly inefficient. The standard method is that of the earth-mound kiln.

A typical earth-mound kiln

The earth-mound kiln will begin with the digging of a shallow pit, which will be as big in surface area as the producer would like it to be. Just from personal experience, I have seen smaller kilns no more than 2 metres by 3 metres, and larger ones of up to 5 metres by 5 metres. These are quite small when compared to commercial kilns, but still do huge amounts of damage.

Trees are then cut down, cut into small pieces and piled up in the bottom of the pit. A wall, or structure is then built around the pit using lumps of rock and coral, tightly packed with earth. An earth roof is then constructed, sealing the structure. The idea is to starve the combustion process of oxygen, so only a couple of very small holes are left to allow smoke to escape. Some sort of fuel is poured over the wood before it is lit, to aid in the lighting process. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but my guess would be something like diesel, judging by the smell that is emitted. Long pieces of dry grass are fed in through the sides and roof so that once everything is sealed, the grass is simply lit, igniting the contents inside.

One of the smaller charcoal pits

Generally speaking, old, mature hardwood trees are cut down. Only a relatively small portion of the felled tree will actually go into the kiln. Only 10% of the wood that goes into the kiln will end up as usable charcoal. And of that percentage that does become charcoal, 80% of the energy in the wood has already been lost. The rest of the wood, and energy goes to waste.