Appropriate Technology: Briquetting Machine
Two of the major environmental and social issues facing humankind today are waste-disposal and bringing adequate power and heat to the poorest people on earth. The Legacy Foundation is focused on confronting these two issues simultaneously.
The primary source for heating and food preparation in the developing world is wood, and millions spend a good part of each day chopping and gathering wood to heat their homes, boil water and cook with. Not only is this terribly detrimental to the environment, but socially inefficient as well. The above video by the Legacy Foundation outlines the impact of maintaining the status quo, and the alternatives they have created to change it.
The solution is extraordinary: simple, efficient, requiring little effort and no electricity. About 30 years ago, Dr. Ben Bryant of the University of Washington began working on a briquetting machine that would reduce the need for fuel wood and create a source of fuel from a renewable resource. The device Bryant and his students created is a hand-operated press that takes non-woody agricultural by-products mixed with water and compresses them into small round briquettes.
The Legacy Foundation picked up on Bryant's invention, and now strives to bring the machines to villages that rely heavily on wood fuel around the world.
The economic impact of the machine in a small rural community is also noteworthy, even if the equipment requires a relatively steep initial investment. The briquette making machine runs about $350, and a thresher used to shred the materials used to make the briquettes is even more expensive: about $425.
The primary source for heating and food preparation in the developing world is wood, and millions spend a good part of each day chopping and gathering wood to heat their homes, boil water and cook with. Not only is this terribly detrimental to the environment, but socially inefficient as well. The above video by the Legacy Foundation outlines the impact of maintaining the status quo, and the alternatives they have created to change it.
The solution is extraordinary: simple, efficient, requiring little effort and no electricity. About 30 years ago, Dr. Ben Bryant of the University of Washington began working on a briquetting machine that would reduce the need for fuel wood and create a source of fuel from a renewable resource. The device Bryant and his students created is a hand-operated press that takes non-woody agricultural by-products mixed with water and compresses them into small round briquettes.
The Legacy Foundation picked up on Bryant's invention, and now strives to bring the machines to villages that rely heavily on wood fuel around the world.
The economic impact of the machine in a small rural community is also noteworthy, even if the equipment requires a relatively steep initial investment. The briquette making machine runs about $350, and a thresher used to shred the materials used to make the briquettes is even more expensive: about $425.
Still, one machine and thresher combination can go a long way toward reducing several families’ dependence upon wood heat sources, and community members can pool their money to invest in the equipment. The Legacy Foundation also donates the machines to needy communities free of charge.
Good work Dr. Bryant! Now that’s what I call innovation.
Monday, January 8, 2007
