Fuel briquettes are made from agricultural and commercial residues such as weeds, leaves, sawdust, rice husks and scrap paper – are a unique yet well proven technology to provide fuelwood.
In this part of the world – like in most of the countries of the developing world, people use charcoal as a means to produce heat for cooking, etc. Fuel briquettes are a low cost, locally made fuel for cooking or heating that offer an alternative to the use of firewood or charcoal.
The Legacy Foundation and its partners have tested the briquette making process in urban and rural areas such as Malawi, Peru, Mali, Uganda, Haiti, Kenya, Zimbawe, Nicaragua and the United States. It is the first time this technique will be aplied in DR Congo, and I would like to credit Robert Williams from Boulder, Colorado, for proposing this idea and providing us with all the materials and technical support. You can read more about his efforts here.
The basic process involves collecting the materials, pounding or grinding them to a certain consistency, mixing the materials with water, allowing the mash to sit for a period of time, pressing the mash into a fuel briquette using a specially designed press, allowing the briquettes to dry and finally burning the fuel briquettes exactly as one would burn firewood or charcoal.
Briquettes made out of different recipies. Credits: The Legacy Foundation
Briquette Press Machine. Credits: The Legacy Foundation
Ah, so that’s what the press looks like! It seems relatively simple but I’ll bet finding the nuts and bolts is problematic there. How’s it going?
s.
By: nothoney on April 8, 2008
at 12:40 pm
[...] and Chopping A wide range of materials can be used for fuel briquette making. We need to find a unique recipe with good burning characteristics for this [...]
By: Drying and Chopping « Project Kadutu Weblog on April 18, 2008
at 3:52 pm
[...] the meantime, we are pounding the leaves and making the compost for the fuel briquettes. We are not sure how long that will take (the manuals say between 2 to 3 weeks, depending on [...]
By: Machine Progress « Project Kadutu Weblog on April 23, 2008
at 1:51 pm
[...] more excuses now, as from tomorrow we will be pressing paper fuel briquettes, until the agro material compost is [...]
By: Voilà! « Project Kadutu Weblog on April 24, 2008
at 7:03 pm
[...] Today we have given it a try with the press machine and the production of paper based fuel briquettes – mixed with grass and straw. This is the easiest recipe to do, because paper is the only material [...]
By: Our First Briquettes! « Project Kadutu Weblog on April 25, 2008
at 10:46 pm
[...] A short update on our progress. We are making fuel briquettes every day, still mixing paper with leaves, because our compost is not ready (could take between 2/3 [...]
By: What next? « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 1, 2008
at 3:42 pm
[...] Fines Briquettes On Saturday we have been pressing new paper fuel briquettes. Our mixture was paper based (20%) with charcoal fines (20%) and 60% of mixed [...]
By: Charcoal Fines Briquettes « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 12, 2008
at 7:34 am
[...] As you may well know by now, there are two ways of binding fuel briquettes: either by decomposing the agricultural products, or by using waste paper/cardboard [...]
By: Paper Recycling « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 17, 2008
at 6:58 am
[...] have received the visit of Ephrem from WildlifeDirect, who has come over for some training on our fuel briquette [...]
By: Delivery & Training for WildlifeDirect « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 21, 2008
at 6:53 am
[...] a Stove So we have already tested some fuel briquettes with the local stove called babula, which proved to be [...]
By: Building a Stove « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 21, 2008
at 8:15 am
[...] with The Legacy Foundation in Portland, we have decided to give it another try by burning the fuel briquettes without a [...]
By: Mission Impossible? « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 29, 2008
at 7:21 am
[...] After my latest post and failure to get rid of the smoke when burning the fuel briquettes, I received an e-mail from Robert Williams who advised the [...]
By: Another Shot « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 30, 2008
at 7:06 am
[...] using sawdust holey briquettes in mass production), we have decided to test a new mixture of fuel briquettes: 1/4 parts pf paper and 3/4 parts of [...]
By: Sawdust & Paper Briquette « Project Kadutu Weblog on May 31, 2008
at 9:08 am
[...] very smart oven called Kimbo, that burns on wasted sawdust. So we have decided to test it with our fuel briquettes and compare both burning [...]
By: The Kimbo Oven « Project Kadutu Weblog on June 4, 2008
at 5:53 am
[...] Press Machine Delivered Today we have delivered the 3rd fuel briquette press machine to The Hôpital General here in [...]
By: 3rd Press Machine Delivered « Project Kadutu Weblog on June 5, 2008
at 6:09 pm
[...] Finished Stove Today I have collected our first purpose built Stove One to be used with the fuel briquettes. [...]
By: Finished Stove « Project Kadutu Weblog on June 10, 2008
at 1:45 pm
[...] the press in the General Hospital, gathered together to exchange ideas and fix the price for the fuel briquettes. We will be selling 3 units for 50 Congolese francs. Remember with 3 fuel briquettes you can cook [...]
By: Notes from our last Meeting « Project Kadutu Weblog on July 6, 2008
at 3:36 pm
[...] An update from the General Hospital in Bukavu and their fuel briquette production. Nurses and general staff are on strike since last Monday, complaining that they have [...]
By: Workers Strike « Project Kadutu Weblog on September 19, 2008
at 7:37 pm
[...] it comes to drying the fuel briquettes, well, that is a problem! – unless there is an adequate installation in place and a big roof to [...]
By: Come Rain or Sunshine « Project Kadutu Weblog on October 17, 2008
at 6:12 am
[...] mark. And that means a lot of charcoal to be consumed. My research is focusing on non woody biomass fuel briquettes as an alternative to charcoal consumption in the DR Congo. If this technology has proven to be [...]
By: Charcoal Sales in Bukavu « Project Kadutu Weblog on October 22, 2008
at 7:53 pm
[...] The team from the General Hospital is getting creative with their production of paper and sawdust fuel briquettes. It first came with the 3×1 (getting 3 briquettes out of one cylinder). Now they have started [...]
By: Double Briquettes « Project Kadutu Weblog on October 28, 2008
at 11:31 pm
[...] Even though fuel briquettes have a proven record of burning efficiently, why haven’t they yet taken off as a replacement [...]
By: Behaviour Change « Project Kadutu Weblog on October 31, 2008
at 8:07 pm
[...] and her Malnutrition Center in the General Hospital in Bukavu. They are fearlessly pressing fuel briquettes on a daily basis, to be consumed in the hospital (preparing the food for the malnourished [...]
By: New Stove Design in Bukavu « Project Kadutu Weblog on March 11, 2009
at 8:53 am
[...] New Press Machines Donated Today we have received the donation for 5 fuel briquette pressing machines, to be installed next week in different regions of South [...]
By: 5 New Press Machines Donated « Project Kadutu Weblog on April 2, 2009
at 7:37 am
[...] am even more excited about the day as it was our first trial of making fuel briquettes. Having been totally inspired by an old friend and work colleague from eastern DR Congo (big hat [...]
By: Camps International Project Diary » Our fuel first briquette press in action! on May 29, 2009
at 12:08 pm