The Charcoal Project

No one knows exactly how many social enterprises were founded around the world over the last 12 months but the conventional wisdom is that about 95% of these will go bust in the first year.

Re:char is an ancient company by these standards.

The four year-old scrappy startup thinks it can improve the livelihood of the world’s energy poor by converting 6 billion tons of agricultural farm waste[1] produced annually in developing countries into sustainable biomass fuel (like briquettes or biodiesel, for example) and biochar, a valuable soil additive that can dramatically boost a farmer’s crop yields.

Biochar is best described as charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass, and differs from charcoal only in the sense that its primary use is not for fuel, but for capturing essential soil nutrients and for storing CO2 in the ground.

Another important distinction is that biochar is produced at a very strict temperature range (450-500C). This temperature range gives biochar a much higher surface area than fuel charcoal. This important factor gives biochar its soil amendment properties.

Re:char’s idea is simple: manufacture low-cost kilns that pyrolyze crop residues and turn them into char, which can be added to soil to boost crop production or converted to fuel briquettes for sale as a sustainable alternative to wood, charcoal, or animal dung.

Re:char’s potential impact on energy poverty relief, Climate Change through carbon sequestration, and poverty alleviation caught the eye of Echoing Green, a group that invests in social enterprise startups through its annual fellowship program.

Jason Aramburu is re:char’s founder and one of 16 recipients of this year’s Echoing Green fellowship. (See Echoing Green’s 1:30 YouTube video of Aramburu explaining re:char)

We talked to Aramburu to find out more about re:char.

The Charcoal Project: Jason, walk us through this. How will re:char make money and provide social benefits to its recipients?

Jason Aramburu: re:char is an effort to promote low-cost, sustainable production of carbon-negative energy technologies. We think our technology can help produce energy and biochar, two commodities with huge potential for the base of the pyramid.

Right now we’re working on two lines of products, a low-cost kiln aimed for the typical 1-acre farmer, and a “fast pyrolysis” kiln for large-scale production of char for urban areas. These would most likely be adopted by actual charcoal-producers.

TCP: Let’s take the biomass fuel first. What’s the big idea here?

JA: The idea is that by adopting the kiln technology, the small farmer can choose to produce biomass briquettes for sale or for personal consumption. The briquettes will need to be price competitive with existing alternative fuels, of course. But the farmer will have the choice to use the kiln’s char production as either biochar or convert it to fuel briquettes.

We realize the local price of charcoal will play a key role in the farmer’s decision on how to use the char. That’s why we are also working on larger “fast pyrolysis” kilns that will provide sustainable, alternative biomass fuels for urban areas. The rationale is that by providing a less expensive fuel alternative to urban populations, the demand for traditional wood charcoal will diminish. This allows farmers to hedge against fluctuations in the price of biomass fuels. That is, if the price of alternative sustainable fuel briquettes is to high compared to, say, charcoal, the farmer can use or sell the biochar as a soil additive. But if the price of biomass briquettes is high, he can use the char to make briquettes.

UNEP published this valuable resource:  Converting Waste Agricultural, Biomass into a Resource — Compendium of Technologies.

TCP: Tell us more about the larger, “fast pyrolysis” kilns?

JA: Increasing the temperature of kiln has different results on the pyrolysis of biomass.

The “fast pyrolisis” process is useful because it generates biocrude oil, which can be used to power a diesel-type electric generator, for example. The large kilns will be able to carbonize biomass more efficiently, in greater quantities, and with fewer emissions. And all this while also generating energy for the larger community.

TCP: What about deployment and prices of these technologies?

JA: Right now we’re in the pilot state for both technologies. Our plan is to begin testing the smaller kilns by deploying 500 of these in Kenya and Tanzania over the next 12 months. The goal is to validate the technology and make sure people want to use them. We’ll also be using this first batch to refine the education and social marketing strategies.

Despite our progress, we want to make sure we get it right, which is why we are still probably 1 to 2 years away from large scale deployment.

We don’t have a date set yet for the larger kilns. We’re still fine-tuning the technology.

As to the price, we’re still studying the issue but our best guest right now is that the smaller kilns it will go for between $20 and $50. The larger units will be more expensive, obviously, but they will also provide higher margin products. To keep costs down and avoid local tariffs (which can significantly add to the final cost) we are contemplating local production of the units, so we’ll be looking for local partners.

TCP: How are you financing re:char?

JA: Right now it’s self-financed. We have some angel investing and some grant money, too. The Echoing Green Fellowship has really helped drive attention to our work, so perhaps that will translate into financing down the road, too.

TCP: What about selling carbon offsets?

JA: We think the kilns have the potential to capture and sequester large quantities of CO2, but we’re not basing any of our business model around the sale of carbon credits. However, if it does happen, it will be icing on the cake!

TCP: Switching gears, let’s talk about the biochar. How’s the acceptance of biochar as a valuable sustainable development tool going?

JA: Biochar is a tougher sell in industrialized countries but not in the developing world where there is limited access to modern fertilizers and technology. One reason is that labor is less expensive in developing countries, so the overall cost of producing biochar is cheaper. We’re reaching out to policymakers to talk to educate them about biochar. We’ve been to the World Economic Forum, the UN, and we were in Copenhagen. We’re trying to get more attention from other influential development groups like the Clinton Global Initiative and the Gates Foundation.

[1] Biomass wastes include agricultural wastes, such as corn stalks, straw, sugarcane leavings, bagasse, nutshells, and manure from cattle, poultry, and hogs; forestry residues, such as wood chips, bark, sawdust, timber slash, and mill scrap.  Municipal waste, such as waste paper and yard clippings, are also part of the cellulosic biomass waste stream.

A lesson in Coca Cola's World Cup video.

Does anyone know someone at Coca Cola?

We sure could use their deft marketing expertise as displayed in the video above made by the corporate giant for the World Cup! (Click on the image to play the video.)

Granted, selling the beautiful game loved by billions is easier than promoting energy efficiency technology and policies for the base of the pyramid.

Still, making a video that mists the eyes of the most hardened anti-soccer mysanthrope is no small feat.

While we wait for Coca Cola to helps us produce the perfect video that will help the energy-efficiency-technology-and-policies-solutions community tell its story (we can start by giving it a real name!) , we’ve compiled four slideshows recently published in the New York Times that we think help visualize the energy hunger/energy obesity world we live in.

Two of these four slideshows appear in Andy Revkin’s weekly roundup of green news on the NYT’s website.

Finding Design Solutions for the forgotten ones

William Kamkwamba attended the MIT sessions

The first piece is a slideshow narrated by the Time’s Andy Revkin reporting on the great work being done by Amy Smith at MIT’s D-Lab. We are thrilled to see that her annual sustainable design workshop has this year brought together folks from around the world to think about simple design solutions to many of the challenges faced by those living at the base of the pyramid.

This is a good opportunity to note that Smith was an early booster of our work here at The Charcoal Project.

No, really. These photos are worth more 1000 words!

Tibetan glaciers' vanishing act

The second piece is a more sobering slideshow about the dramatic recession of Asia’s Tibetan glaciers. The images are taken from a current photo exhibition at New York-based Asia Society. The idea of documenting receding Tibetan glaciers by matching photographic images taken from the same vantage point is not new. In fact, one of our scientists at The Nature Conservancy did this back 2005 using photographs taken in the first half of the XXth century.

Read New York Times columnist Nick Kristoff’s take on the images.

Add concrete, mix, and voila!

The third slideshow is titled China’s Instant Cities and the images speak for themselves.

Pizza delivery for Apt. 1,288,757 - A? (Photo: Christoph Gielen)

Quoting from the story intro: This year China will add more than 17 million people to its urban population. To house this unprecedented wave of migration from the country side, cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou are building countless high-rise residential towers at breakneck speed.

Climate Change? What Climate Change?

Finally, the last slideshow is a collection of images documenting the record-breaking heatwave that is baking many parts of the world, including our hometown, New York City.

We hope this selection of New York Times slideshow will help people who have the power to effect change to connect the dots because the time to take action is now!

Kim & Nina

A group of Latin American NGOs has called on the World Bank and IDB (InterAmerican Development Bank) to pay greater attention to energy efficiency and Climate Change mitigation and adaptation.

According to a story reported in IPS, a news service that does a great job of covering the Global South, a group of 10 NGOs from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and United States told the regional bank “it should reduce its projects’ contribution to climate change, respect communities’ rights, make accounting more transparent, finance the development of renewable energy sources and phase out fossil-fuel sources and hydroelectric dams.”

The IDB, headed by Colombian Luis Alberto Moreno, opened a first phase of consultations with NGOs from Apr. 26 to May 26, and will begin a second stage, Jul. 30 to Oct. 30, centred on drafting a strategy against climate change.

IPS quoted Astrid Puentes, co-director of the Inter-American Association for Environmental Defence (AIDA, in Spanish), and a signatory of the letter as saying, “access to sustainable energy should be a priority.”

In November and December, the bank — which was created to promote development and reduce poverty in the region — is to receive more comments, and has slated April 2011 for the release of the final climate change plan.

IPS said the NGO’s called on the the IDB “to put the priority on investments in energy efficiency and truly renewable and clean energy, which effectively promote climate change mitigation and adaptation, and discourage those investments that cause serious impacts.”

“Hey, watch out Robert Zoellick, they’re coming your way, too!”

– Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the IDB.

This time, 13 different NGOs told the World Bank it needed to consider its energy strategy, emphasizing communities’ rights, green energy and transparency in the elaboration, execution and accounting of the projects the bank supports.”

IPS said, “groups from Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and United States want the World Bank to make equitable and sustainable energy a priority, and to take into account the past, present and future effects of its financing on the environment, the climate and the communities.

In a timeline similar to the IDB’s, from February to June, the World Bank collected comments from civil society around the globe, and from July to September it is drafting a strategy, and will conduct more consultations in November and December.

Tranquilo, Luis, I have it under control.

The World Bank plans a public debate of the final document in February-April 2011 amongst its top officials.

The Charcoal Project hopes Mssrs. Zoellick and Moreno will take a personal interest in ensuring that access to energy efficient biomass technologies and sustainable alternative solid fuels for the base of the Latin American pyramid becomes a reality in this decade.

Africa's ubiquitous "jiko" stove

Nairobi, Kenya (Xinhua) – July 9, 2010

A recent report compiled by the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey reveals that a staggering 76.4 percent of households in the country’s rural population, rely predominantly on firewood and charcoal for cooking and heating the homes.

These households still cook using the traditional three-stone open fire hearths, which require huge loads of fire woods to function.

Apart from the wanton destruction of the forest cover, these energy sources also contribute significant pollutants harmful to the environment.

Alarmed by the building up disaster, the Kenyan government and some stakeholders have embarked on a project to mitigate the challenge.

The project, named Promotion of Private Sector Development in Agriculture (PSDA), is designed to disseminate energy saving technologies, geared to improve rural livelihoods.

Speaking to Xinhua in a recent interview on the measures the government has embarked on, Nancy Nguru, the project’s cluster manager for Central Kenya, explained that the core objective is to provide environmental-friendly technologies to improve cooking facilities, reduce fuel intake and pollution.

The first step will be the provision of user friendly technologies to develop energy saving stoves (jikos) for use in ordinary households, hotels and institutions.

The project, she told Xinhua, will be implemented by empowering people in the communities with knowledge, technology and skills on energy saving stoves making process. (Read more)

By Frederick Womakuyu, reported in The New Vision, and reprinted in allAfrica.com

7 July 2010

Kampala — Uganda’s population hit the 33 million mark in 2010. National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) warns that the country’s environment is in danger as much of its forest cover and wetlands could soon disappear.

The dramatic reduction of the forest cover in Kibaale district perhaps demonstrates the impact the high population is having on nature.

In 1990, Kibaale had about 114,000 hectares of forest cover with a population of about 220,300 people. But by 2005, its forest cover had fallen to about 58,300 hectares with a population of about 413,000 people due to migration.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics warns that if the population growth of Kibaale remains unchecked in the next 10-15 years, the forest cover in Kibaale will be reduced to 2,433 hectares. Read more.