The promoters of poisonous black seeds from jatropha [and here and here] “weed” have, so far, yet to imagine, see, the cooking fuel before their very eyes: double pressed oil seed cake [the residual fibers after the oil has been extracted]. When run through the oil press a second or third time, the residual seed fibers come out of the press in plastic-like sheets that can easily be broken into flakes. The flakes have all of the biofibers, very little oil, and burn very well. Presto: excellent cooking fuel.

Using left over seed fibers from oil pressing — if it is non edible - as a fuel for cooking in gasifier stoves would help significantly with deforestation, give women extra hours for other productive activities, and improve air quality. Improved air quality translates directly into improved health for children.

I have personally burned some small samples of double pressed sunflower seed fiber flakes in a stove made by Bill Olsen at St. Lawrence University. So I know it can be done.

Oil seed fiber flakes made from the left overs of oil pressing have additional advantages when compared to pelletized biofuels. If you can eliminate the pelleting step, you can make cooking fuel:

1] a whole lot less expensively.

2] with greater simplicity

3] better utilize existing capital investments in oil presses

What do we need to do to show the world how people in Least Developed Villages [LDVs] can get BOTH an oil crop and a cooking fuel product from jatropha and other oil seed crops?

For more on stoves:

http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/Reed/Turbo2.htm

http://www.woodgas.com/          See esp. their rich set of links.

http://www.crest.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/Countries/country.html

Micro Gifts might be a way to fund some pilot projects working with stoves and oil seed flake experiments in LDVs. Micro Gifts are, as you can see, a logical compliment to Micro Loans.

What are the next action steps?

Note:

It may be necessary to modify existing gasifiers to work with oil seed fiber flakes and the flakes may need to be given some “shape” in order to create the required air flow for the gasifcation process.

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