Burning carbonized cobs produces less smoke than regular biomass fuels, but the carbonized cobs produce a hazardous level of carbon monoxide. MIT's D-lab developed a device to turn charcoal powder into a dense compact briquette that burns safely, but it is difficult to crush the carbonized cobs into a charcoal powder without inhaling dangerous amounts of charcoal dust. The MIT team's charcoal crushing device addresses the gap in this alternative fuel process. … Read more
Earth Oven Building an oven of local soil
Earth Ovens have been used for thousands of years by cultures all over the world and they are still built today by people all over. Earth ovens are made up of just that, EARTH! Sand, clay and straw are used in building these versatile ovens. It takes only 10 to 12 hours to build in total, with some intermediate periods for drying layers, and the oven will last for many years without loosing its capacity or quality. An earthen oven can be used to cook the same things cooked in a normal … Read more
Make your own Solar Cooker Solar Cooker from tin cans
Parabolic solar cookers are devices for preparing food that do not require fuel. They concentrate the sun’s rays to one focal point where a dark pot or pan can be used to cook with. The link will direct you to a manual on how to make such a solar cooker yourself with local material and waste material, using bottoms of tin cans as reflective mirrors. This is a very low-cost/no-cost do-it-yourself way of making a functioning solar cooker. It works with good sunlight. However, do read the bottom … Read more
Plastics to oil Experimental technique to convert plastic back into oil
One of the Gaia University graduates who was a co-founder of Surfers Without Borders began exploring this pyrolytic thermal depolymerization process as a potential solution for the Pacific plastics gyre. The desktop unit he explored uses 1 kilowatt of electricity to convert 1 kilogram of plastic into 1 liter of oil, at a cost of around US $0.25 (see first link). Working under the auspices of Global Village Technology, they looked into starting a pilot depolymerization project as part of their … Read more
Harvesting the wind with scrap metal An amazingly inspiring piece of African ingenuity
William Kamkwamba was a son of poor farmers in Malawi. During the severe drought of 2001, the whole country was starving as soils lay bare. Kamkwamba refused to accept the horrible fate that was upon him and his family. By studying the images in a handful of English books on natural science, he learned to build a windmill from scrap metal and was thus able to pump up water for crowing crops. 'I tried and I made it. Never give up.' … Read more
Making charcoal briquettes for fuel Recycle waste charcoal into new fire-starter
Charcoal biquettes or 'earth orbs' are balls of compressed flamable matter for starting and maintaining a fire. How to make them: Collect the remains from charcoal cooking fires. Mix the charcoal remains with corn cobs or other such material and Pyrethrum Plant (Dalmatian insect flower, Big Daisy). This plant improves the combustion (fire power) of the orb and its smoke chases away mosquitoes. If no pyrethrum is available, you can replace it with a local plant with similar properties. Mold the … Read more
Solar Composting Toilet Dry Toilets
This video will explain you one of the differents ways you could built your own composting toilet. It is a special example, because it works with solar energy. … Read more
Evaluate your electricity consumption Check your electrical devices
The first step is to be aware of the consumption of all the electrical devices you have in your house. A very simple an not really expensive tool exist to easily do that: The WATT METRE. STEP1: check all your devices. Really easy to use, you just plug it in and then you plug any device on it. Thanks to the a little digital screen, you have the live consumption of your device. Even if it's not really expensive, you can join other people to buy it and then lend it to each other. STEP2: if you … Read more
Biogas everywhere Manual to buildt an amasing Biogas-System
“Biogas” is a naturally occuring mixture of 60 to 70% methane and 30 to 40% CO2 with some H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide), that burns similar to so-called “natural gas”, which is actually a fossil fuel. Once generated and stored, biogas is primarily used around the world for cooking and heating at the home scale, but it also has many other important applications both domestically and industrially. Its use as a fuel to power electric generators at all scales is well established and it also has a long … Read more
Solar Cooker Wiki A lot of different models and plans
The link below will lead you to a wide range of different solar oven design. You'll probably find the one you need. … Read more
