A French company, AFI, is partnering with students at
Michigan Technological University to help develop a biochar manufacturing process for the developing world.
If you're not sure what biochar is, think of a campfire that's partially burned out; the black charcoal-like charred wood before it turns to ashes is biochar. It's being explored as a fuel source to replace wood in cookstoves in Benin through this new partnership.
The benefits biochar offers are that burning it produces less smoke, and since wood-burning smoke is one of the biggest disease and death causes in the developing world, that's important.
Of course, you don’t want to have burn wood to produce the charcoal in the first place. So, the students and AFI are working on a way to use leftover palm kernel shells for the feedstock to create biochar. The manufacturing facility they propose would then form it into briquettes and sell it affordably. Tech Enterprise students have built a small demonstration kiln earlier for a South American project, and now aim to commercialize it on a large scale for use in Benin with AFI.
Writer: Kim Eggleston
Source: Michigan Technological University
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