Friday, April 30, 2010

BBC News - Oil reaches coast in US disaster

NOAA calls the disaster "mind-boggling". What is mind-boggling to me is how the public continues to shore up demand for filthy fuels when with minimal investment (less than has been and will be spent on cleaning up these tragedies and compensating the lost revenues to fishermen and other businesses) we could already h...ave obviated these fuels and replaced with clean alternatives, like biogas.

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news.bbc.co.uk
Up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day are thought to be spilling into the water after last week's explosion on a BP-operated rig, which then sank.
April 30 at 11:41am · · · Share

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Tanzanian Biodigestor at Joram's house

  Sybille, Kilian and I have arrived in Paris directly after successful Africa research and technology transfer trip to present our findings (and new biogas melodic-mnemonic song) at UNESCO conference.

Thomas Henry Culhane
Photo shows our latest above ground biodigestor design at the home of Joram Soloman overlooking Lake Tanganyika, where we stayed the last couple of nights in Kigoma. Joram's family has 12 cows and over 30 goats providing plenty of microbial starter culture for the kitchen-waste system we built; we can also use the compost pile (behind the digestor) to heat the reactor.
April 29 at 12:12pm

Monday, April 19, 2010

Blackstone Ranch/National Geographic EE Innovations Grant

  2010 has blessed us with the realization of the first phase of our Innovations Grant. We have been building biodigesters of various types on three continents and are working hard on many new designs and ideas, letting local circumstances, native genius and collective intelligence (with the indispensable help of God) guide us.


  April 19:  Arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, after two and a half days travel. Now in search of Dereck Joubert, if he is here somewhere! Otherwise will meet with NGOs and set up relationships for biogas/solar project for Gorilla forest conservation and local economic opportunity. (boat from Kigoma Tanzania past Gombe to border of Burundi, 7 hrs, overnight at border village w/o electric or water,, motorcycle to Nyanza, Burundi w/ police escort 1 hour to get 20 dollar transit visa, minivan to Bujumbura 4 hrs, minivan to Kyanza 4 hrs, motorcycle to Rwandan border 45 minutes (with breakdown), overnight border w/o water or electricity, van to Butare 30 min., bus to Kigali 2.5 hrs -- in case you want to make same trip.)

Friday, April 16, 2010

First biogas system in Kalinzi, Tanzania

After 4 days without electricity in the mountain village of Kalinzi, Tanzania, disturbed that we, like the villagers, were forced by circumstances to use kerosene to heat our bathing water and firewood to cook our meals, Grace Gobbo (Tanzania), Hanna Fathy (Egypt) and I (Germany) have finally finished two in-ground biogas digestors and were able to demonstrate the clean, perpetual blue flames that will help halt deforestation and the importation of filthy fossil fuels.

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Eric Santiestevan
Eric Santiestevan
That is effin' RAD.

Just a side thought--TH, you know that Haiti is almost completely deforested due to charcoal making. That place is screaming out for these kinds of biogas digesters (and all the aid it can get).
April 16 at 11:12pm · 
Thomas Henry Culhane
Thomas Henry Culhane
Find us enough funding to get out there and buy materials, get us a place to stay with a family and some food and we'll find some time to get out there! You can consider yourself a member of Solar CITIES and write yourself into any grants and we can go out there together! Wouldn't that be a great reunion Eric? If you have a contact in Haiti let's do it! Our next project here in Africa is biochar to complement the biogas (biogas provides home fuel, biochar gives the families a source of income to replace revenue lost from decreased charcoal selling opportunities -- the end market doesn't care if the charcoal comes from trees or waste biomass but the villager depends on selling charcoal to make ends meet; here in Tanzania villagers use firewood but make charcoal to sell to the city. We are supplying biogas to replace the firewood but need to start our biochar project to protect their livelihood. Let's work together on this, shall we? We need you in Solar CITIES Eric (also for the musical goodwill ambassador portion of our mission!)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Arc Welding Eye Itching in Kenya

Rough sleepless night in Kenyan paradise: Didn't know that arc-welding can cause one's eyes to itch terribly all night as if sand had been poured in them; ouch! Is it the shock to the eyes from the bright arc, or the fumes? Consolation is that we've now built 4 different types of systems; working with the kids was fun too!

Thomas Henry Culhane
Thomas Henry Culhane
The kids are holding are latest development in the pursuit of creating "bacterial fuel rods". Whereas in Germany we filled nylon filter socks with bio-block plastic balls, here the kids (one a Masai youth and the other the son of wildlife photographers; the man in red is our friend Edwin) and I and Hanna cut 2 inch pipes into lengths the height of... See More the gas collectors, roughed them up with sandpaper and knife blades to make place for the bacteria to adhere and form biofilms and then cut "calliope" or "pipe organ" holes in them to allow food to get in and methane bubbles out. Placed vertically in the tank they not only provide vertical surface area for the growth of many different kinds of microbe films (assumedly permitting psychrophiles to thrive at the cold bottom, mesophiles in the interior and thermophiles at the hot top of the tank) but act as support poles for the telescoping gas collector so we don't have to build an outer cage to constrain it. Collective intelligence always creates great innovations when people from different cultures and age groups mingle ideas on mutually beneficial environmental projects!
April 7 at 10:04pm · 
Isabel A. M. Cole
Isabel A. M. Cole
Yeah, no goggles while welding can do serious damage to the eyes. At school where they are building behind a fence they have signs all over the place not to look at the welding with the bare eye.
April 8 at 4:50am · 
Marcel Lenormand
Marcel Lenormand
Ouch. I know that feeling.
I used to do a little mig welding for a saturday job. The common practice when tacking was to cover the arc with a gloved hand. Being lazy I tried just closing my eyes. It worked fine until later that day my eyes wanted to climb out of my head!

I understand it's radiation from the arc, not just the bright light.
Go carefully! And God bless you!
April 13 at 12:15pm · 

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Welding oil drums to make a biogas digestor

  Our Masai mechanic friend Stephen taught Hanna and me how to arc weld today so that we could create a different kind of biodigester today more suited to local materials and the budget of the Masai (average salary for those employed in tourism is 13 dollars a day). Turns out plastic tanks are prohibitively expensive but discarded oil drums are everywhere. The trick is welding them together to be gas-tight, and it ain't easy!

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Thomas Henry CulhaneWhen I first tried to learn welding in Egypt (arc and torch) the folks showing me were doing it barefoot in the rain. At least here we wear rubber shoes and do it when it is dry! :)
Poverty forces all sorts of compromises -- but they get the job done. So far no burns!

Our new system is based on a sketch in an old FAO manual they used to give to the peace corps, modified to accomodate the new info about kitchen garbage outperforming dung by about 400 times.The problem is lots of micro leaks. We will see if brazing can help tomorrow morning, we will also apply bitumen tar and wrap with rubber inner tube strips.
By the way, we have also been inspecting an adsorption chiller fridge (used to use kerosene) and are videotaping the piping so we can youtube it for you. Still can't see what is going on on the inside, but everyone agrees it could run on biogas. Unforntunately we leave before first flammability. How is your system in Seattle going? Heard from Al? Before I left he was about to flame test but had had no results. Peace core manual predicts over a month particularly in low temps...

Peter Foxon Miller
Watch for UV burns on those fore arms too! I remember getting the worst "Sun burn" of my life on a little exposed patch on my neck after arc welding for a couple of hours. Man did that hurt!
April 7 at 1:06pm · 
Thomas Henry Culhane
Thomas Henry Culhane
Could it be the UV that caused all of our eyes to itch so terribly last night Peter? Me, Hanna and the Masai mechanic Stephen who worked on the project all suffered a sleepless night because of it. Stephen is experienced but the number of hours we had to spend patching holes made it an extreme job. Definitely need better goggles; the shield they had was too dark so we had to keep glancing at our welds.
April 7 at 9:55pm · 
Thomas Henry Culhane
Thomas Henry Culhane
Sybille, we solved the leakage problem by lathering bitumen on the welds, covering them with black electrical tape to smooth out the rough edges and then cutting rings out of old innertubes and stretch fitting them over the tanks where they were joined and lathering more bitumen on. Now we have a functional system. Don't know how long it will hold before leaking, but that is what this research is all about, right? Will be interesting to consult with Dirk when we get back to Germany and he is back from his travels.
April 7 at 9:58pm · 
Peter Foxon Miller
Peter Foxon Miller
I assume UV will affect your cornea and conjuntiva as much, if not more, than your skin. Could also be gases and ash. Iron oxide is pretty harsh stuff. Regarding the leaks, you might try to improve the welds by adding a band of metal (cut from another barrel) on each side I'd the weld, then bridge it with a second weld. Happy travels, and looking forward to seeing you soon!
April 7 at 10:04pm · 
Thomas Henry Culhane
Thomas Henry Culhane
Thanks for the tip Pete! If we build another of these type of oil drum systems in Tanzania next week we will employ your suggestion about the band of metal (assuming they have proper metal cutters, called "snips here; we had to remove the bottoms of the barrels here using hammers and chisels.
Look forward to singing with you at Sanders soon too!
April 7 at 10:09pm ·
Peter Foxon Miller
Peter Foxon Miller
Or... Cut one barrel at the point where it's flared, to increase the amount of overlap at the weld. Thin metal, edge to edge, is one of the hardest welds to do.
April 7 at 10:10pm ·
Thomas Henry Culhane
Thomas Henry Culhane
That's an even better suggestion! Wow! Glad you are online Pete! We've welded flare to flare (or rim to rim), but you are right; if we can find a way to insert a rimless barrel into the other barrel we can weld down... we'll try that. If the barrels don't slide in each other to overlap, might we then put nip and tuck snips into the metal, the way your Mom might sew costume pieces and join them, to get the metal to fit in?
April 7 at 10:14pm · 
Peter Foxon Miller
Peter Foxon Miller
The nips would certainly make a stronger joint, but I think it might make it more challenging to make a water tight joint..
April 7 at 11:24pm · 
Peter Foxon Miller
Peter Foxon Miller
Another thought. If the metal is thin, and it sounds like it is, you can flare an end by hammering the metal (against something hard, think anvil) working your way around. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll gain diameter! You only need to increase the circumference by 1/3.14 of the thickness of the metal. Pi is your friend in this case. Don't forget to protect your ears! Otherwise we'll need to sing in the key of your tinitus next month.
April 7 at 11:33pm · 
Peter Foxon Miller
Peter Foxon Miller
Oops. Got that ratio exactly backwards, but it's still much!
April 8 at 1:01pm · 
Marcel Lenormand
Marcel Lenormand
Seems like quite a mission. How many you sticking together?
April 14 at 10:57pm · 
Thomas Henry Culhane
Thomas Henry Culhane
3 drums, Marcel, based on a couple of sketches in an old Food and Agriculture Manual called "Biogas I and II" that I bought from knowledgepublications.com that we modified to accomodate waste food as the feedstock instead of manure. Our goal is to try and build at least one of every design in the literature so we have a diverse toolkit to deploy in every circumstance.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

American Express Travelers Checks: Don't leave home WITH them!

As we spend our last night in the recycling community before departure I thank beloved wife and partner Sybille for watching over us from afar and swiftly managing all the mini-crises that arise in the field from home base, writing and calling and connecting Kenyan partners with us as we source difficult to find materials that will make or break the project.

April 1 at 1:55am 

Tips to those who may follow in our footsteps: stay away from American Express Travellers checks (or any other); they are all but worthless; can't change them in Cairo airport or any banks, money changers or hotels (even the big ones) and the only Amex office on Kasr El Nil/Talaat Harb charges 3% to cash them (on top of the 1/% to buy them) and ... See Morewarns that in the rest of Africa either you can't cash them or might pay up to 12%. They say the business is closing because of ATMs. Very scary situation since all we have are travellers checks.
tip 2: buy all the plumbing parts you can in Cairo; in Kenya there is an Indian monopoly on supplies and everything is 2 to 3 times more expensive than even Europe or America; we must scale back our project because of this - 1 system costs as much as two or more should; water tanks cost as much as 250 dollars each and there is no aftermarket ... See Morebecause people struggle so hard to get them they use them until they fall apart. Very sobering. To think one of the poorest countries is also one of the most expensive. Now we have to rush back to the market and see how much we can haul in our luggage from Egypt.
April 1 at 2:03am ·
 
tip 3: watch out for malaria medicine; in Cairo Chloroquine Phosphate costs only 20 cents for a package of pills but is useless in Africa, Larium costs 50 dollars for a package of 8 pills, and besides being expensive can cause psychosis in some people (and nightmares and other sideeffects in others) and Malarone, which is the only one you can ... See Morestart 2 days before departure, isn't available anywhere in Cairo. Typhoid, Cholera and Meningitis shots cost 15 dollars from govt. center in Mohandesseen for first shots (must follow up on return with second shot for 8 dollars within 28 days) but Yellow fever only available in Giza far away and they close at 1 pm. In case you were curious...:)
April 1 at 2:08

www.bring-the-elephant-home.org

Azriel Cohen

Azriel Cohen to T.H. Culhane 

Hi TH,
Could you please spread the word about my new photo exhibit "Elephant Emotional Intelligence"? It's online for a few days to raise money for an NGO working to get elephants off the streets and save them from extinction. Even if you can't buy, please look at the exhibition. The photos will make you smile and the accompanying information is totally fascinating.

Thanks!

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www.bring-the-elephant-home.org