LIGHT FUEL PROJECT - A Green Cooking Fuel Alternative
Putting aside the claims of Global Warming and the theories behind it, we undoubtedly have a big problem - one with global implications. According to the latest audited figures from 2003, over two billion tons of CO2 enters the atmosphere every year as a result of deforestation. The current rate of destruction amounts to 50 million acres - or an area the size of England, Wales and Scotland felled annually. Unfortunately, many people underestimate the importance of our forests; indeed, areas such as the Amazon rainforest, the Congo basin, and Indonesia are considered to be the very lungs of our planet. At today's alarming deforestation statistics, the destruction of those forests will in the next four years alone pump more CO2 into the atmosphere than every flight in the history of aviation to at least 2025.
Taking it down and focusing on a much more personal level, in Uganda alone, a country about the size of Oregon with ten times the population, 80% of the people depend on charcoal and wood as a cooking fuel on a daily basis. With an estimated population of 32,000,000, this means that over 25,000,000 people are daily foraging the countryside for fuel in the form of wood or charcoal to cook their food and boil their water. Due to the gross deforestation that has already occurred, millions of people are forced to simply to go without - without properly cooking their food and without adequately boiling their water. This unfortunate and entirely preventable set of circumstances leads to many life threatening health problems resulting in tens of thousands of deaths every single day.
The Need
Safe cooking and sterilization practices are essential to maintain basic health standards, yet today more than 2.4 billion people worldwide are without a viable form of cooking fuel. This lack of resources keeps them from being able to prepare their food or to boil their water properly, thus putting them at risk of a multitude of diseases, including cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery. In much of the developing world, wood charcoal is the only available form of fuel. The burning of this charcoal- often in small, enclosed living spaces- produces heavy smoke and carbon monoxide, contributing to widespread breathing problems and respiratory infections, especially among children. In addition, an alarming rate of global deforestation has resulted due to a rapidly growing population in many developing areas of the world, which has put unprecedented strain on the world's ecological system.
The Vision
To provide to the impoverished and under-privileged areas of the world a fuel alternative to wood and charcoal that is both low in cost and environmentally friendly.
The Light Fuel Project
The Light Fuel Project challenge is to create an environmentally sound fuel production prototype that can be easily transported. One that requires no electric or petroleum fuels to operate, can function well in a hostile environment under primitive conditions, and will produce a clean burning fuel out of a renewable, readily available feed stock that does not deplete local food resources.
Prototype Project Description
Produce 1,000 gal/wk - 1 gal/wk/family/5,000 people It is the intent of the project to provide for the construction, insulation and operation of a 1,000 gallon per week ethanol facility combined with a gelling plant. This plant will provide enough resulting cooking fuel to furnish 5,000 people in an area village or community. This makes the assumption that each family of 4 would utilize one gallon of cooking fuel. The plant will consist of receiving and crushing equipment that will process products such as sugarcane and sweet sorghums. The resulting sugar juice will be fermented in one of four steel tanks and will then be conveyed through a distillation system that will produce 190 proof ethanol. This product will then be mixed with a gelling agent to create a semi solid cooking fuel. The process requires steam which will be provided by an electric free broiler. The fuel for the broiler will be the stalks left over after the squeezing of sugars. This is a typical type of process in the sugar industry but obviously differs to the extent that there is no electrical power running the boiler.
Economic Analysis
It has been determined that, in Uganda, a 140 pound bag of charcoal sells for approximately $15.00US. The heat value of this product is roughly 4,000 BTU'S (British Thermal Units) per pound for a total of 560,000 BTU's per bag of charcoal. The instant/instant off efficiency of ethanol lowers the equivalent heat value requirement to 151,800 BTU's to satisfy the average monthly need for cooking fuel in most developing countries. This need can be met with under $7.00US of Light Fuel - roughly half the cost of charcoal.
The Benefits
The resulting benefits of the Light Fuel system are significant and far reaching. Not only is the fuel safe, clean, reliable and efficient. it is also low in cost and environmentally friendly with not one life giving tree is expended in the process.
The total amount of money needed to be raised to launch this project is $250,000. The estimated production cost for the Light Fuel system is under $130,000.
