Description of Challenge
Breathing in charcoal dust when making briquettes. Disease and death from indoor smoke. Time collecting firewood. Deforestation for firewood. Scarce finances spent on fuel.Low cost design for a device which crushes corn cob charcoal and other charcoal from agricultural waste into material to make charcoal briquettes, without creating hazardous charcoal dust.
Solution
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.
