By Kobus Venter
Welcome to the ‘Vuthisa Biochar Initiative’ blog page. On this page you will learn more about our project and what we hope to achieve. The project officially kicked off in December 2013.
The project actually has many outcomes, but the primary goals are:
Create Employment – Up to 30 workers will be employed in year one. Unemployment is rife (>50%) in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal especially with a minimum wage now being introduced for farm workers. The feedstock for the Biochar project will be secured by ‘Vuthisa Charcoal Projects’ through a contract signed with the Department of Environmental Affairs, Natural Resource Management Programme, that pays the wages of our workers.
Eradicate Invasive Alien Plant Species and restore the Natural Biodiversity of the land – We intend to clear over 300 hectares of Wattle in this area and restore the land back to virgin grassland. The main culprit being Acacia mearnsii (Black Wattle) and Acacia decurrens (Green Wattle). Unmanaged Wattles in KwaZulu-Natal has now reached more than 300,000 hectares in extent, according to the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) report commissioned by Water Affairs, 2010. Left untouched, this alien vegetation would spread at an average rate of one percent a year, threatening water and food security. Concerted efforts are being made to prevent the further spread of these invasives especially in water catchment areas and it is estimated that R 34 Billion ($ 3.4 Billion) will have to be made available over the next 25 years to stop this spread.
Increase streamflows and reduce erosion – The Wattle trees spreads vigorously through the seed it puts out and these typically germinate in or near river systems, reducing filtration into underground aquafirs and streamflows. At the onset of the infestation when the trees are young, only 500 mm of water is preserved within a typical annual rainfall area of 1200 mm. As the invasives spread, after 24 years only 25% of the entire potential water yield namely 300 mm of water will become part of water supply into the local catchment.
Develop Emission Reducing Biochar Kilns and reduce greenhouse gas emissions –Acacia mearnsii is a hardwood species and makes excellent charcoal. Conventional pyrolysing tecnologies in South Africa however are less than 20% efficient. Our first goal is to achieve a minimum of 25% wood to biochar conversion efficiency. Using more efficient methods to produce charcoal (or Biochar) has the potential to save about 100 MtCO2 per year in Sub-Saharan Africa (See http://bit.ly/I0KIXl). CO2 production from Emission Reducing kilns has not been quantified, but a 5 to 10% reduction in GHG’s is expected. We plan to produce 150 tons of Biochar in the next two years and we expect that 20% of this will be bought indirectly by fertiliser companies which could result in at least 30 tons of carbon being sequestered back into the soil.
Develop Biochar Eco-fertilisers – Biochar as a soil amendment will allow rural folk to improve their subsistence agriculture. Mixing biochar with soil or a good active organic compost before it goes in the soil will soak up its full compliment of water, nutrients and microbes so that it can make those available immediately to the plants as soon as it is added to the soil. Ultimate concentrations after some time of repeated applications of these eco-fertilisers (chemical free) will work up to about 8 to 10% biochar by weight of the soil content.
See this Google Earth map below of precise location of the clearing operation:
What is Biochar? – Biochar is charcoal mixed with compost and applied to the soil as a soil amendment and has the same benefit to plants than chemical fertelizers. The act of burying the Biochar in the soil, removes carbon from the air (CO2) and sequesters carbon into the soil for thousands of years and prevents the release of Methane from harvested plant material into the atmosphere. Methane is a key fuel component to providing the heat into the retorts and in the Biochar forming process. Venting un-burnt Methane into the atmosphere contributes 26 more times to the greenhouse effect than CO2 alone. For more information on biochar, feel free to research the many references to Biochar on Google or read more on our Biochar web page: http://vuthisa.com/biochar/
Harvested IAPs ready to be charred
Biochar Retorts being primed for firing in Guatemala
Please donate to the project.
The Energy and Environment Partnership fund for Southern and East Africa (EEP-S&EA) have kindly stood up and agreed to fund 50% of the Project Management fees, Site Preparation, Tools and equipment and Administration fees. The EEP Programme in Southern and East Africa is jointly funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland (lead donor), The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). For further information visit: http://eepafrica.org/ or http://eepafrica.org/portfolio-item/vuthisa-biochar-initiative/#tab-id-1
To donate to the project please get in touch with us. We offer branding opportunities on Hippo Water Rollers, send out T-shirts and give shout outs on Social Media. Contact us here to find out more.
We accept SWIFT payments whereby money is wired into our project bank account. Please approach your local bank’s FOREX department and request the appropriate procedure and instructions to follow to expedite this type of payment.
Contact us here for our bank details.
Donate via PayPal (pay with a credit card):
Donate via EFT:
R100
R1,000
R2,000
R5,000
R10,000
Please indicate in your bank reference which activity you wish to sponsor.
What will the money be used for?
We will have the following expenditures:
1 – Water and Sanitation
Instead of purchasing large stationary water tanks to supply drinking water from rainwater harvesting, we thought it would be cool to use Hippo Water Rollers and collect water from the nearby fresh water vlei. Each water roller can hold 90 litres of water. This presents branding opportunities for companies out there, by having their name or logo printed on each Hippo Roller. Visit the website for Hippo Water Rollers here for more information: http://www.hipporoller.org/ The cost of each Hippo Roller is R 1,500 ($ 136) including delivery to the site. We require a minimum of 4 Rollers and a total of R 6000 (± $ 544).
The cost of purchasing and delivering 2 x Portable toilets to the site is R 14,000 (± $ 1,272), and we’ll pay for the fortnightly servicing of the units.
[0%] of “Water and Sanitation” funded to date.
Reviewed on: 20 January, 2015
2 – Cooking Stoves
The cooking stoves we require are special portable wood- and charcoal fuel saving stoves and because we are re-sellers of this product we can provide them at cost to our workers. We require 8 of these stoves to offer the staff with a means to cook their food safely or to boil water. More information here: http://vuthisa.com/news/stovetec/
The cost of delivering 8 stoves to the site is R 3,880 (± $ 352).
[0%] of “Cooking Stoves” funded to date.
Reviewed on: 20 January, 2015
3 – Protective Clothing
To ensure our workers are operating safely and are fully kitted out, we need to supply them with adequate protective clothing (PPE). These include Two-piece overalls, T-shirts, Rainsuits, Gloves, Chainsaw operator safety gear, Goggles and Masks. The most recent quotation revealed that we need R 22,560 (± $ 2,051).
[60%] of “Protective Clothing” funded to date.
Reviewed on: 20 January, 2015
4 – Tools & Equipment
The basic tools and equipment required for the project include Hatchets, Loppers, Knapsack sprayers, Combi-cans, First-aid kits, a Fire extinguisher and Spades. This will cost R 14,500 (± $ 1,318). We have already paid for 2 chainsaws worth R 11,300 (± $ 1,027).
[65%] of “Tools and Equipment” funded to date.
Reviewed on: 20 January, 2015
5 – Biochar Kilns
The specialized Biochar kilns have been developed over many years and are professionally constructed by a light engineering company in Mkondeni, Pietermaritzburg. The cost of each kiln ex-factory is R 9,000 (± $ 886) and we require 3 to start off with for a total of 27,000 ($ 2,658).
[18.5%] of “Biochar Kilns” funded to date.
Reviewed on: 20 January, 2015
6 – Environmental Impact Assessment consultancy cost
The planned activities for the biochar project and charcoal activities will require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and an Atmospheric Emission License (AEL). The entire process is expected to take 11 months to complete. Cost: R 329,543.22 ($ 32,954) including VAT.
[57%] of “EIA” funded to date.
Reviewed on: 20 January, 2015
When everything is tallied up we need R 87,940 (± $ 7,995) PLUS R 164,771.61 (± $ 14,979) for the EIA and AEL. The EIA and AEL will be funded from biochar sales, but any donation towards this cost would be very much appreciated.
[33%] of “Vuthisa Biochar Initiative” funded to date.
Reviewed on: 20 January, 2015
In conclusion we would like to thank everyone for their support and that we will do everything in our power to meet the goals of the project.
Or for more information contact us here: http://vuthisa.com/contact-us/
