 |
Climate Change, Talk about the effects of long-term weather changes on the planet, along with the good work being done to counteract this trend. | 24787 Followers  |
Follow Justmeans editorial on:
Share this on:
Yellow Fuel for Africa
Sara Wolcott | Friday 15th May 2009
 In East Africa, its hard to escape Banannas. At nearly every turn in the road, women and young people will approach your vehicle and offer you some bananas. They are a staple in the diet - from food to beer. And now, the peel might be used for fuel. Young scientists at Nottingham University have found a way to turn the peels into 'banana bricks' by mixing them with sawdust and rotting banana leaves. The mixture is then rolled up and dried in the sun - within a few weeks, it's ready for fuel. What is particularly cool about this spin on 'bio-fuels' is that it uses waste products (not the edible parts of the banana), no fancy technology, and can all be done by hand with local, easily available material. And the researchers have the right ethos: they want to give the ideas away for free. The challenge will probably be in the uptake - while this 'technology' could save huge amounts of time (and forests) through gathering firewood that remains the chief source of fuel for many people, it requires a substantially different behavioral pattern for the women who will be doing it. Hopefully, the researchers will go back in the field and work with the farmers and others who could use this process to find what will make it most successful. |
 |
Other Climate Change Articles |
 |
mike clifford 15 May 2009 Hi
Thanks for blogging about our research. I've had over 100 email messages about banana briquettes since it featured on BBC News 24. The messages have come in from all over the world, for Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh... so hopefully the publicity will assist in the uptake of this technology. Briquetting isn't new - people like the legacy foundation have been making simple presses for years, but clearly the message that waste can be turned into fuel needs to be shouted louder. Briquettes can be formed by hand without the need for a press. We made some balls this way and they burn pretty well. This project came about through my involvement with Tearfund, a Christian relief and development charity. I%u2019m running other projects on things like efficient stove design, solar tracking, mini wind turbines and much more. See: http://jm.ly/hWi0pc http://jm.ly/VTEsAq All the best, Mike |
 |
Elaine Cohen 15 May 2009 hey sara, thanks for posting this. sound like a very creative idea. please keep us posted, if you can, with the way this idea gets implemented, and the local community impacts. There is probably a carbon-trade deal in there somewhere too - sounds like a novel offset route which could bring in funds for to support the required community transformation
elaine |
 |
|
About the Author
 |
Sara Wolcott Is blogging |
|
|
|
Manage Your Networks |
- Manage your Twitter, LinkedIn, Justmeans, & Facebook accounts from one place.
|
People Working on Climate Change |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 You are Following 0 People out of 17 | |||||
