Recently a reader asked if it will be safe by 30th April for a person with breathing difficulties to visit Chiang Mai?
As of today 21st April when there there was a brief rain shower int the early morning the government website reports that PM10 pollution readings remain high but are now below the critical level of 120 microgrammes/m3, unlike neighboring Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son provinces.
However the outlook for the coming week is the low probability of rain in the next two days and then hot sunny weather for the remainder.
Now add to this the presence of huge and growing stock piles of corn waste as in the picture above from Rong Kwang district in Phrae, which after 30th April may be burnt without government prosecution.
It would appear there is a possibility a return to high pollution levels if farmers are eager to dispose of their mountains of waste before heavy rain arrives. Heavy rain in the last days of April can neither be predicted at this stage nor ruled out.
Does the government have the ability to extend the burning ban, and if so how the maize waste be managed?
Wouldn’t this maize waste just turn to compost fertilizer if spread out in a thin layer over the topsoil? Just sprinkle it over the land and let nature take its course. I just don’t understand the burning. I wish they didn’t have to grow corn at all. In my opinion, corn is not a healthy food for humans. I wonder in this climate what fruits or nuts could be grown instead. I was disappointed to learn that almonds cannot be grown here, but there must be something better than corn.
I am guessing that this corn waste is largely fibrous material. Can pigs eat it if mixed into a slurry of some kind? Could it be mixed with some kind of binder/cement and be used to make construction blocks or pressed wood sheets? Could it be fermented and used to make fuel? If it were burned, why not more efficiently in a steam engine used to run a train or other vehicle? Setting it on fire in the open just burns it very inefficiently and creates so much smoke. Corn is grown extensively in America. What do they do with the waste there?
M’aider – help me in French. God help all of us.
If an enterprising person could find a use for this corn waste, the farmers would probably be happy to let you just come in a truck and haul it away. Mexicans make adobe bricks out of mud and straw; could this material substitute for straw? Many adobe buildings in Mexico are still standing after many years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe
I asked folk working on Biochar to suggest how we could interest the big boys( e.g Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group ) behind maize production and this was one response:
Plan out 35 mile catchment areas, at the center of each build Paul Weaver’s Biomass Energy processing facility. Pellet or plug, and distribute. He worked with engineers at Caterpillar for developing this infrastructure of automated processing facilities across Illinois.
Network all the local business and industry folks who have heating loads and show them the economics of Chip Energies 180K BTU per hour biomass TLUD furnace in a 20 foot shipping container, also point out APL’s 100 kW “PowerTainer” and 10 kW Power Pallet.
Contact CP about the opportunities for Biochar supplements in their livestock operations. Show them the work with cattle in Switzerland and extrapolate the benefits at both ends of their swine operations. The very large savings that comes with the responsible control & utilization of nitrogen. Odors etc.
Also a farmer here in the Shenandoah Valley is experimenting with using pellets, made of switchgrass grown on his own farm for poultry litter. This controls the cost of transport and his second highest expense in raising chickens. Of course I briefed him about dealing with his higher expense propane using Chip Energies biomass furnace.
Show them what Facebook is doing with International Technical Corporation at their Prineville Server Farm. The production of totally carbon negative electricity with their TRU reactors. Producing 9MW, 2000 pounds per hour of activated carbon, 8000 pounds per hour of Biochar, with oxidized SYN-gas and oil CO2 emissions sent into greenhouse arrays for total carbon negativity.
If that doesn’t not their socks off,
Extrapolate what those millions of tons of biomass could be in jet fuel, diesel & gas if processed by Cool Planet Energy systems.
My 2K cents,
Erich