Projects for developing countries
The key focus of this work is looking at what in our country is considered waste but in other countries would be considered a useful item.
To this end we are in the process of researching and developing two projects:
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) for developing communities from non-edible crops grown on arid soils where edible crops will not grow
We have researched and developed a combined heat and power plant that is built from readily available items from the UK Waste stream, with a long term aim of replicating these plants for communities in developing countries.
To this end we have built, rebuilt and tested a number of CHP plants from waste materials and have overcome many hurdles in the way of the production of a consistant source of heat and power.
We hope that one day we can send a cheap and reliable power solution to communities in developing countries.
We have developed a low cost regulator for the reclaimed CHP plants that can be made for pence as opposed to hundreds of pounds and have developed a number of approaches for using waste engines and motors to produce large quantities of heat (or cooling) and power.
Our first test model produced 20 Kva of power and around 35 Kw of heat and we used it to test the fuel characteristics of waste vegetable oil.
We are currently building the mark 4 set utilising low cost materials and hope to have it running later this year.
PPO Engine conversions for developing countries
We are researching ways of using common items from our waste streams to enable communities to convert diesel engines cheaply and reliably to run on PPO.
Communities across the developing world already rely on diesel generators for all their power needs and diesel engined vehicles often serve entire communities as their only form of automotive transport.
We are looking at using items from the developed worlds waste streams that could provide a cheap and reliable and easy to install engine conversion, which could enable people to use non edible crops grown on impoverished soils where edible crops will not grow.
Blooming Futures is an organisation commited to environmental best practice and in no way supports the use of oil crops that are intensively grown for export for use in biofuels in the western world. We feel that these exports either directly or indirectly threaten some of the most bio-diverse ecological systems in the world.
We do however see that there is a genuine opportunity for communities in the developing world to meet their own fuel needs and regenerate their own soil for food growth if these types of projects are managed responsibly.
On a community scale there is a real oppotunity for people to grow non edible crops in arid soil conditions to provide for their own fuel needs. Jatropha is one such crop that is commonly used.
Jatropha grows in arid soils where other edible crops will not grow. It needs little maintenance to produce and provides the potential for communities to meet their own fuel needs and generate their own power and heat (which can easily be turned into cool air for hot countries with basic refridgeration equipment).
The use of crops such as jatropha, if managed responsibly, could enable communties to regenerate soil quality and meet their own power and transport fuel needs.
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