Work update

So its been a while since I've updated this page... I'm pretty sure everyone who starts a blog starts off thinking they'll be updating it daily with exciting updates and photos... But its so easy to get on with living life rather than writing about it!

Work has been quite varied over the last few weeks. I've had some follow-up work from my trip up north to Gulbarga - mainly assessing their options for cooking and passing on information about their requirements for other solar installations such as a solar powered water pump for the well.

While I was there I spoke to them about the option of producing biogas as fuel for their cooking (this is made by using the breakdown of waste material - from food, agriculture, animal dung etc.). Biogas is being increasingly used all over India and it is relatively simple to set up when you have a source of waste to use. There is another name here for gas produced using manure- "Gobar gas". They had about 50 cows on site plus a few deer so it seems like a perfect option for them to set up a biogas plant and use this waste. Biogas plants output flammable gas as well as a slurry which is ideal as a fertiliser for agriculture. Despite this, they were very resistant to the idea- with a whole host of objections about how its smelly (which is surprisingly not true), the slurry doesn't work on the "black" soil in the area, and a general feeling that it "isn't something we do round here". SELCO have some project work looking into biogas plants which Vidyut is carrying out until he heads back to college, so he's looking the objections from the guys at the school.

I spent a while looking into the options for using cookers which use biomass pellets that burn cleanly, more efficiently and are kind to the environment - but this option still gave too much uncertainty about how much money they could save on fuel and makes them dependent on a single fuel supplier. I ended up making a comparison between these pellet stoves and some larger scale improved firewood stoves - particularly looking at those created by Sustaintech - a social enterprise which has come out of TIDE. Using this type of stove almost eliminates smoke and soot production as well as burning wood far more efficiently- I found that if they moved from a three-stone stove (open fire) set-up they could save as much as Rs.3000-5000 per month which is a huge amount for them.

I've been spending quite a bit of time working on a couple of different projects in the lab this week- some design and research work on a solar- hybrid food drier which is to be used at a fishing cooperative in Mangalore. This is Nishant's (he's going to be at SELCO for a year) main project and the  idea is that fish can be dried in order to preserve it and it doesn't go to waste, while saving money and energy on burning large amounts of fuel. Its quite a complicated problem- balancing air flow, getting optimum drying temperature and collecting enough solar energy to drive it is difficult.

The other project I've been working on is with Sebastian, designing a test rig for a small scale paddy separator which separates rice paddy from dehusked rice. Again- its a more complicated problem than it sounds- especially when you are constrained to designing with the materials, components and expertise that are locally available. The whole point in the design is that it can be easily replicated in poor farming areas and so our design must be cheap, sturdy and effective, otherwise its never going to be used.

Hopefully that wasn't too dull to read! I'll get some nice pictures up soon, but for now I'll leave you with a photo of the view out the lab window yesterday evening:

Sunday mud madness

So, completely unexpectedly on sunday afternoon we found out that some of the university's students and teachers were celebrating Krishna's birthday (Krishna Janmashtami) (no I didn't realise the gods had birthdays either) by smashing pots suspended very high up, and dunking each other in large amounts of mud.

Of course the fun and games was all reserved for the boys, with the ladies watching under umbrellas from a distance.

Here's a few pictures:

Somehow, Anantha (bottom left) manages to stay spotless and not be dragged into the meleé

A failed attempt

Carnage

Me, Seb and Vishal

After a wash with the hose

A bit of a dance off

Trip to Gulbarga

Just a short one to update on my trip up north. I headed out on Wednesday and arrived back here in Ujire on Saturday- so three days away in total. That sounds alright, except that roughly 45 hours of it was spent travelling! We arrived early on Thursday morning, after the 16 hour (which ended up being 18 hours) ride on a "sleeper" bus". I imagine that you probably would get a decent night's sleep on one of these when travelling on one of the UK's straight and smooth motorways... Not quite the same on Indian "roads" which apparently require the driver to brake and manoeuvre so ridiculously hard and fast    it would probably make a can of coke explode after 10 minutes.

There's also the issue of beeping. Actually for bus/truck drivers "beeping" is probably too soft a word so I'll go with the (probably american) "honking" to describe the ear-splitting sound made by just about every vehicle on the road. In the UK, I probably would use the horn about once a fortnight, for situations involving mild roadrage, being cut up or going around a blind corner. In India, horns are used with the same frequency as we'd use indicators in the UK. All together, not the easiest place to sleep, especially when you're about an inch too long for the beds...

Anyway, enough complaining. In Gulbarga, Deepti, Robin and I were able to visit a farm where the local SELCO branch had set up a solar powered electric fence. This relatively simple device helps this small scale farmer, who's field is very remote and miles from grid electricity, to keep his crops safe.

Deepti talking to a smiley farmer

A troupe of locals carrying produce on their heads

Robin and I later headed off to the school where we needed to gather information about their energy needs and cooking set-up. It was a sweaty, noisy (yes, teenagers blasting out tunes on their mobiles from the back seats is not unique to the UK) almost two-hour bus trip, which was not a lot of fun after all the travelling the previous night. When we arrived we were given Indian coffees and I was surprised how peaceful the place seemed (despite the 60 or so children who were being taught that day). We managed to gather lots of information and discussed the idea of trying out some solar cooking and clean burning pellet stoves, instead of smoky, inefficient wood burning on stones.

The leaders (right) were constantly smiling - until you take a photo of them

It was an interesting visit, and good to see that they were keen to try new things after having invested in some solar lighting. The institution was situated in a really run-down and remote village- but it was good to see that kids were being fed and educated here. The leaders of the place were quite excited and said that it was the first time a foreigner had visited their village. They gave us a lift to the main road to catch the bus in a tiny little Suzuki, and I answered lots of questions about British culture, religion, marriage and weather...

We spent the evening with the guys from the SELCO branch - eating some notoriously spicy local food     and drinking tea.  On the way back the next day, I have a feeling the bus driver decided to take an even bumpier, windier road than the route we arrived on. It was a worthwhile trip, even if I did come back incredibly tired and with a man-cold.

Weather Update and my trip up north

On sunday we ventured out to a beach in a town called Malpe. We weren't expecting any good weather, but after a little time the sun came out and it was roasting. The sea was warm and pretty clean so we spend a while in the waves. Later we brought a lot of attention to ourselves by digging a big hole to bury Vidyut in...

We stayed the night in Mangalore and managed to watch some of the Olympics- even staying up til 2am to watch the 100m final. 

Since we got back to Ujire yesterday it has been raining. Non stop, seriously heavy, tropical rain. About 24 hours of it! There was some thunder and lightning last night too which was pretty impressive.

I now understand why everyone has an umbrella round here. I find it quite ironic that having lived most of my life in England and never having bought an umbrella, but on coming to India I've got one after less than a week!

So tomorrow I'm off to a place called Gulbarga which in in the extreme north of Karnataka. I'll be doing a needs assessment and observing cooking habits at a small institution. Should be interesting, though I'm not quite sure what to expect. I'll travel up there with Deepti who is doing some different work in the area, looking at trials of solar fencing, and Robin who's going to assist me (especially with translation!).

Its meant to be a 16 hour bus journey to get there, which isn't a particularly fun prospect, but is a true Indian experience :).

16 hours rattling around in an old bus

First week at SELCO labs

Its nearly the end of my first (6 day - yes we work saturdays) week at SELCO already. Quite a lot has happened.

The massive tree in the middle of the university building

Much of this week has been spent looking into the feasibility of designing an affordable smoke extraction solution for the rural poor. I guess I should give some background to this.

There has been a huge amount of investment into improved cookstoves around the world, it has even become a political issue in many places. Many companies and NGOs have attempted to create scientifically designed "rocket stoves" which burn biomass very efficiently and with reduced levels of smoke and harmful gases as well as supposedly reducing the amount of fuel required. However, there are several problems with these improved stoves and their distribution, which are often overlooked.

There has been a lot of field testing of many types of rocket stoves in urban and rural areas. The reason for differentiation is that cooking habits vary widely in different places and amongst different people groups. Any intervention means changing peoples habits which is incredibly difficult.This is one of many reasons that a "one size fits all" solution is not the answer. It has been proven many times that in real live, the stoves don't come close to their quoted efficiencies which have been measured in a lab or in controlled field tests. In some cases, people who have received these stoves have kept them to use only on special occasions- reverting to their normal 3 stone setup for their usual cooking needs. In some of SELCO's tests in urban areas, users have not understood how to use the stoves properly or their benefits and therefore not been keen to use them. 

After water and sanitation, indoor air pollution is the largest environmental threat to health in developing countries.It is an issue that effects women and children most, but smoke inhalation appears to be a minor issue in the minds of many women who are used to cooking indoors in thick smoke. 

There has been some efforts in the area around Ujire to put improved stoves to use, which have not been particularly successful- but there are still many, many people in this area breathing a lot of smoke.

I've spent a lot of this week looking into cookstoves, but have also been helping others with their projects- testing new solar panels with Vishal, development of some small scale agricultural machinery designs with Seb and looking at small scale biogas collection with Vidyut. 

Me on top of the roof with some solar panels

Seb working on the small scale rice dehusker

We have had time in the evenings to do a few fun things - and have been out for some fantastic meals. My favourite was at a local place called Sapna where we had a delicious 3 course dinner with mango juice for about Rs. 125 each... Thats about £1.50.

We went swimming in a nearby river (much to the upset of our auto-rickshaw driver who later tried to call Seb 3 times to check if we were OK), played a bit of cricket, and taught the Indian guys how to play (touch) rugby.

An evening swim in a nearby river 

Some cricket on the college campus

On monday or tuesday next week I should be going to a place called Gulbarga in the north of Karnataka to check out the cooking setup at a small institution which has asked SELCO to do some consultancy work looking at alternative fuels etc. Not sure how its going to work- and its meant to be a 15 hour trip each way!

Arriving in Ujire

It took 7 long hours of zipping along through the countryside to make it to Ujire where I'll be based for the next 3 months. It was almost impossible to sleep in my tiny bunk as the bus hurtled around corners and avoided brave rickshaw drivers on the bumpy road. I think I managed to drop off a couple of times. Unfortunately one of these times the bag containing my laptop was knocked off the bunk, landing on the floor... What I didn't know was that this had happened to it:

poor laptop :(

Whoops. 

So I arrived in Ujire to the shouting of the bus conductor at around 4:30am. I'd already woken up since I was worried about missing my stop. After I hurriedly got off, I hunted for an auto rickshaw to take me to the university where SELCO's lab is situated. Luckily my driver knew where I wanted to go and got me there nice and quickly so I could meet Seb who, bleary eyed, met me outside the staff accommodation where we are staying with 3 other guys from SELCO. 

The next day, after about 3 hours sleep we were heading off to the nearest city, Mangalore, so the others could pick up some supplies that are scarce in Ujire. I met the other engineering interns at SELCO- Vishal, Vijud and Nishal as well as finally meeting Sam who is a previous EWB volunteer who has now gone on to work as SELCO labs mechanical engineer. 

Mangalore is a bustling town with some big malls as well as small vendors lining the street. Its very different to rural Ujire but its good to know that there is somewhere less than two hours on a bus away   that has places to buy more "unusual" items like pasta, or toilet roll. It was another bumpy ride. 

One thing that struck me about arriving in the countryside was the change in climate. Its much warmer and far more humid than Bangalore, which is situated at about 3000ft altitude. Rains can start and stop very abruptly, and soak you through instantly. We've had a couple of days of good sunshine but I now understand why locals always carry an umbrella with them, just in case! 

Back at the apartment later gave me a chance to see around the University campus - SDM Institute of Technology. The students were on holiday when I arrived so it was quieter than normal. After a week here, its a fair assessment that this university is quite different to what I'm used to... and perhaps even quite different to other universities in India.

the view from the university buildings