Are there new technologies that will zoom local production and improve our resilience?

Of course.

In fact, nearly all of the technology we need, can be developed by people tinkering with solutions and sharing the results online.

Tinkering?  Yes.

Tinkerers working in networks invented airplanes, light bulbs, and personal computers.  Tinkering networks operate on the simple idea that:

• Lots of people prototyping solutions to problems and
• sharing their results with lots of other people
• can quickly invent and develop amazing solutions to difficult problems.

The Challenge

Here's an example of a tinkerer that has a pretty slick solution to a difficult problem:  Is there are resilient way to burn biomass locally?

One of the solutions we've begun to explore is the conversion of a septic tank into a biogas system (see the earlier letter, "Don't throw away your Wealth" for more).

Another solution is to develop a furnace or stove that uses (technical language alert -- beep, beep) gasification and pyrolytic processes that allow us to:

• burn nearly any type of biomass feedstock (wood, husks, etc.),
• in a smokeless/clean way (nearly zero smoke/fumes),
• and produces biochar (an extremely useful soil amendment produced by pyrolysis) as its primary waste product.

The closest I've seen to a simple technological design that would be appropriate for this is the Lucia Stove.  Here's a diagram for how it operates:

While there is a more elaborate injection molded version of the stove available, there's also an the origami version for disaster relief and development that ships as four pre-cut slats of metal that can be easily cut and bent to build the stove (which means it is easy to purchase and test out as an alternative to a BBQ).   The team at the Haiti Clean Stove Project documented their construction of one here.

Could this stove's design become the basis of a resilient furnace system?  Perhaps.

With some more work (primarily an automated method for feeding/cleaning it and fail safes to prevent problems), it could be a resilient furnace or stove that you and I would be happy to use.

Your guide to tinkering,

John Robb