Diehl Mutamba, Brigham Young University
Biomass contributes to several renewable energy technologies. This project will explore the use of fast pyrolysis to produce fuels and marketable materials in Malawian villages. Currently, the Malawian people harvest firewood from the forests, which is a major contributor to deforestation. Furthermore, they convert some of it to charcoal with about 10-15% efficiency to sell to city dwellers. The project will enable herbaceous fuels to replace wood, increase charcoal yields and create new products. Firewood and charcoal produce smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) that compromises the villagers’ health. This project will address deforestation problems, improve sustainability, decrease health hazards and improve the local economy. This project will increase the yield by a process called pyrolysis. Fast pyrolysis produces bio-oil in addition to charcoal from biomass. This project will investigate ways that fast pyrolysis can be implemented, using cornstover or any other accessible biomass such as sausage fruit and plants. We hope to develop a prototype fast-pyrolysis experiment that will be replicable in environments like the villages of Malawi. Prior experiments indicate that corn stalk can form bio-oil with up to 60% yield under laboratory conditions (Pittman 8). We will explore ways of doing this under Malawian village conditions. The research is relevant because it will help improve the energy yield from biomass, decrease deforestation, decrease health effects from using wood, and improve the village economy. The fast-pyrolysis process produces pyrolysis oil that that can be used as a fuel or sold. It also produces charcoal that can be substituted for wood charcoal or can be used to reintroduce carbon nutrients back in the soil. The project will address whether fast-pyrolysis process could be implemented specifically in Malawi, how that oil could be used for the benefit of the people, and if this solution can be extended to other subsistence farmer cultures. Long term, this process could open up business opportunities in the villages. The revenue from that could be used to improve livestyles in the village. The process, if implemented, will help empower the villages, will help educate and encourage sustainable projects in many other villages. That is the exciting aspect; the opportunity to not only help one village but to affect multiple villages starting with one or two. After reviewing the resources listed below and with my personal experience in Malawi, I am very excited and hopeful about the research.