I am writing this blog in my hotel room in Bangkok, been catching up with friends and family here. I was on the Skytrain on my way back to the hotel and I saw a Fulong wearing a black polo shirt with the logo “UNIPCC – climate change conference Bangkok 2009”. I asked the wearer if he was with the UNIPCC (United Nations International panel on climate change) as I am doing stuff with LIRE (Laos Institute for renewable energy). The answer I got was just gold dust:
“No I am with the UNHCO conference, but we don’t have any shirts, you should get down there, they are really good shirts for only 300 baht and they have plenty left”
At least our planets foremost authority on climate change is recycling its excess polo shirts, I’m sorry I don’t think there is any help for us.
Many thanks for all you responses to the success of the biogas project and for all those sceptics out there, yes you can run a diesel engine on Cow poo (or be precise up to 80% cow poo, you still need the diesel for the ignition and to lubricate the injectors). Before you all go off and buy a diesel engine and hook it up to your septic, it is not as simple as all that. The technology is a more “fit for purpose” than that, that is to have a viable power source using biogas from cow poo (or any other biogas from other bio digester feed stock) be aware you need a lot of it, so ideally a dairy farm or pig farm where, “washing out” is part of the process. Also if the farm is “on grid” there is little financial incentive to either go “off grid” or “parallel to grid” as in terms of labour costs (the man hours required to run the system) and purchase and maintenance of capital equipment, it would probably be more cost effective and simpler to hook up to the grid.
With Copenhagen just a couple of weeks away (and lets be honest nobody is expecting ground breaking revelations from that) the call for carbon taxing and a move to green energy will be high on the agenda, local or national government incentives might push the viability a little further, there is also the marketing side, consumers in the west are becoming more ‘green savvy’ so it could be a good PR exercise.
Anyhoo back to the plot. In my last blog I mentioned my return trip to the organic farm in Vanviene this time I took a ‘Rice Husk Burner’ with me. The plan is as I read on the internets; it is possible to convert rice husks into Rice Husk Ash (RHA) which in turn can be used as a cement extender. It is just a matter of burning the husks long enough and at a low enough temperature (it has to smoulder rather than burn > 800°C) hence the burner. The transportation a number of sheets of stainless steel via Laos’s public transport I can assure you is not fun. I decided to take the VIP bus ( don’t get carried away with the term VIP is a bit quicker than the local bus and has air-conditioning but VIP is being very fast and loose with the phrase). Pick up from my Hotel was at 9:00 AM so breakfast at 8:00 AM, the pick up is via song tao which then goes and picks everyone else up at before taking to the bus. So arrive at bus at 10:00 AM (Has to pay additional 30,000 kip ($AUD3.5) then a 1 hour wait for late comers, set off at 11:00 for the 3 ½ journey. Blow out one of the tires about 1 hour shy of Vanviene, over an hour to fix. VIP bus does not go to bus station, only the local bus goes to the bus station, oddly last time we go dropped no way near the bus station by the local bus they said only VIP bus goes to bus station. We were dropped off at a guest house on the outskirts of Vanviene and the rest of the travellers were picked up and taken to their respective guest houses. I was left with bag and several large sheets of stainless steel. I went to the guest house to ask if the could get me a tuk tuk to take me to the organic farm, they said I should go to the bus station, I said I would have gone to the bus station if the bus had taken me to the bus station, they said only local bus goes to bus station, I should have caught local bus.
One of the great pleasures is one of the great challenges of Laos is getting used to the “Laos Laos” way of doing things, it gives to a chance to practice infinite patience and the entertainment factor in your day never ends up the way you had planned it. However it is a bit like Chinese water torture and just every now and again the “Laos Laos” gets to you and you have a complete sense of humour failure, I had reached that point. It was now 3:30 PM and I and I had not eaten since breakfast, I was hot tired and completely “Laos Laos” out.
Finally managed to get a tuk tuk who charged me extra for taking the rice husk burner finally arriving at the organic farm at 4:15 PM giving me about one hour to assemble the unit and get the first batch underway before it got too dark, fortunately the ladies were just sitting down for their mid afternoon meal and graciously asked me to join them so I could grab some energy input, I was starting to fade at this point. (I cannot understand it that the Laos and Thai’s seem to be eating all the time but there are no lardy biffa’s anywhere).
Sunny’s arrival was timely to help me assemble the unit. OK it is not rocket science but this unit had never been assembled before and as always posed its own headaches. After assembly we chatted to Mr T about a suitable location, be warned if you ever try this, there is a lot of smoke, so it was to be located in the middle of the garden to the house closer to the first bar on the river. On reflection the biggest impact the burner had over the weekend was sending plumes of acrid smoke towards the bars, the daily contest of five or six PA systems is irritating so having even the smallest amount of revenge seemed well worth it.
Without going into too much detail of the tests of the rice husk burner (I have produced a report which is circulated to EWB) the outer race of the burner was filled with rice husks and a small lighted rag dropped into the central chamber (banana tree bark was found to be a good ignition source). We then dropped a portable goat enclosure which had a roof over the top in case of rain. (If it rained during the process the burner would become useless.)I checked it at regular intervals, and it seemed to be happily smouldering away but Sunny checked just prior to retiring and he reported there were flames coming out of the burner, this should not happen. In the morning there was a burner about 1/3 full of Rice husk Ash (RHA). After pounding with a blunt instrument it was reduced in volume again to about 1/5th the original. This was mixed with lime and a small test wall erected. On drying the cement crumbled, test 1 failure.
We attributed the failure to a number of issues. Firstly the rice husks were just dropped into the burner, I noticed during one of the checks that the smouldering was causing cavities in the stack which were producing small flames, which was not a good sign. During the evening and the night the wind had increased, not to storm force but enough to ‘fan the flames’ causing the combustion of the rice husks. Lastly the lime used was dry, according to Mr T it should be soaked first producing what I believe is called ‘quicklime’, I am still a bit vague on this so I am ready to be corrected on this.
So batch #2 would have a bit more control, firstly the rice husks were packed in using an end of small branch, this also had the effect of increasing the capacity, secondly the goat enclosure was wrapped in a tarp to prevent wind getting at the burner. The following morning there was a bit more ash than the previous day and I must admit it looked the same as the previous day’s batch but the general consensus was it was denser. A couple of test walls were erected, the first using RHA and a clay slurry the second using a mixture of RHA and cement and the clay slurry. The first worked very well and the integrity of the mortar and the render held. The second however the mortar made was solid and held its integrity but it did no adhere to the bricks. I was told on a later date by Peter that the following day rain had dissolved the mortar in the first trial, so something else needed to be added to seal the mortar against water. Like all experimentation it is small steps to achieve your goals and be prepared for disappointments and always be assured that nothing is as straightforward as it first seemed.
Another thing I was roped into during my stay at the organic farm was teaching English at a local school. Imke, a Dutch girl staying at the farm was volunteering teaching English and she had persuaded one of the other residents to take a class, but he had not shown the morning of the class. Imke asked if I would take it given about 5 minutes notice. She gave me a number of cards, (today’s weather is Sunny, Cloudy, Raining Windy) which was essentially what I was to teach them for about an hour. I was given a bike to ride and the rough location of the school which was about a 10 minutes ride away. Which gave me a few minutes to reflect on the fact that I had never done anything like this before in my life and secondly if this was in the west how much preparatory work, teacher training, licence, permits and background checks would have to be done (not that this is a bad thing) before I was let anywhere near a school. In Laos it is “Do you want to take an English class, it starts in 15 minutes”.
I must admit it was fun I had a class of about 30 kids between 6 and 7. And I must admit to not being 100% in control of the class, I tried to be too clever by writing an English word on the board and then writing the Laos equivalent beneath it so they could understand the sound. I was later told that only being 6 and 7 they could not read or write Laos yet.
I was very sorry not to make Pedro’s house warming party, I had to fly to Bangkok, but apparently a good time was had by all. No less than four goats were slaughtered ( I’ve never been to a four slaughtered goat party before and somehow I think I am missing something) Peter managed to construct a mirror ball from a broken mirror a soccer ball and tapioca flour, whats a mud house warming party without a mirror ball.
1.Assembly of Rice Husk Burner
2. Burner just after lighting
3. The RHA residue the morning after
4. Shortly after ignition
5. Test 2 with tarp windbreak
6. Mixing of RHA & clay
7. Mortar & render tests 1 & 2
8. Sunny on Girls bike
9. Being overtly politically correct the concept of 'wrestling' was not mentioned once
10. Kiren tries lateast in Laos organic face pack
11. Laura puts finnishing touches to bay window
12. The crew at dinner
13. Pedro's house 4 days before 'goat slaughter fest'
14. Any & Kerin put finnishing touches to moziac in Pete's house
15. Class 1B escape committee in full flight
16. More for Dinner
17. Sunny samples local fair
