Haiti Charcoal stove
Bootstrapper January 26, 2010
The day of the earthquake I was in Haiti and took the attached picture of a charcoal stove in a school kitchen that afternoon. The other method used to cook was a 3-stone fire.
The day after the earthquake we were walking thru a neighborhood seeing if we could help anyone when I observed a strange sight. It was the location of a charcoal seller and the entire floor of this location was charcoal powder or dust. This "floor" was at least 3 to 4 foot thick. My thinking at that time was this is a tremendous energy resource. Time did not allow close inspection or even talking with the operators.
On my return home, I made a quick "how to" document on using the charcoal powder with a binder to hand make briquettes. I've sent the document to my contact in Haiti and asked that he take it to the charcoal seller and see if he knows how to use that charcoal powder/dust. No reply yet.
There may be hundreds of charcoal sellers in Haiti with hundreds or thousands of pounds of charcoal dust or powder that can be made into briquettes.