Earth Survival System V3 (off-grid)

Here's a more 'Earthed' version of the Earth Survival System V2 that updates a few biochar production technologies and integrates cascaded use of biochar and water for cooking, WASH and growing systems.

It's meant to be an off-grid system, is adaptable to different scenarios eg. elements of it could be forked and integrated into other systems. Otherwise, a circular system at the most basic level of application.

Here's the latest research on the Navigator 'Dual Burner' and UPS.

- 2nd burn on 6" burner
- ambient temperature: 12degsC
- wood pellets
- fuel weight: 1.2kg
- 5m startup  
- 14L water in 15L stainless stockpot  
    - t=0, 14degsC  
    - t=30, 60degsC
    - t=60, 76degsC
    - Burn time:  51m, quenched at t=51
- Biochar recovery: 100%
- sterilization OK! (see 'Water sterilization' article below)

Effective water pasteurization is my main objective which will save biomass fuel compared to sterilization or boiling. As it turns out, recommendations for "time and temperature of thermal pasteurization of water" are scarce and should be treated with skepticism. There are solid recommendations for pasteurization of milk: https://www.idfa.org/pasteurization

though I wouldn't suggest using milk as a proxy for water which could contain many more pathogens that require different time and temperature profiles.

A bit more context can be found here under the 'Heat (boiling)' section:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_water_purification#cite_note-8

The WHO recommends boiling water with a rolling boil and the CDC recommends a rolling boil for 1 minute.

Here's a breakthrough research paper (below) that provides context on a more technical level than what I'm currently R&Ding at published in 2020. It's exactly what I was angling at with pasteurization being a more fuel efficient option than boiling which is recommended for it's visual feedback but very conservative. It's clear now that most pathogens are killed or are at acceptable safe levels at 70 degrees Celsius so I'll aim for 71 degrees Celsius. Now I have a clear R&D goal for water temperature in the Navigator Burner. I'm going to go with 5" 304 chimney flue (lighter weight, cheaper, easier to grind, more common than 5" exhaust tube though not as durable) now using a similar slot position to the original Navigator Burner using 240mm high secondary air slots with a 130mm updraft above the secondary air slots. The 5" form factor is also optimised for the 5" flame hole on the UPS. I'm hoping to get the fuel below 1kg for 14 litres of water pasteurized in a 15 litre stockpot. I'm also going to test temperature with my stainless Vacola thermometer in 10 minute increments. I should also mention too that on the ESS mind map at the top of the page, I'm also suggesting using biochar wood pellet (produced during pasteurization) water filtration after pasteurization to remove hypothetically most chemical residues remaining in the water (type and concentration levels will presumably greatly vary between different geographies).

I will post the results on the 'Navigator Kitchen (NK)' web page.

FYI, I've made a list of variables for pasteurization time and temperature achieved which I understand are determined by:
- TLUD/pot stand integrated system
- heat/wind shield around TLUD
- feedstock type eg. pellets, sticks, manure etc.
- feedstock Energy Density (ED) eg. Wood pellets have higher ED than rice husk pellets
- feedstock Moisture Content (MC) eg. Ideally less than 15%
- feedstock amount (determines feedstock weight and limited by maximum reactor volume below secondary air slots/holes)
- feedstock particle size
- airflow between feedstock particles
- pasteurization device eg. 15 litre stainless steel stockpot (plus heat conduction/exchange at the base)
- environmental factors eg. Ambient air temperature, Relative Humidity (RH), water temperature, wind etc.
- others not considered

Also, every new TLUD system needs to be tested, ideally with different fuels. In the case of biomass pellets, if more people are using biomass pellet technologies, the demand for the pellets will increase and the production of the pellets will increase too (facilitated by plenty of unused 'waste' sawdust and rice husk in many places) and the cost of the pellets should go down which I hope happens in Australia. If you can afford an ideally electric pelletiser eg.N-PICO and have access to sawdust, rice husk, sorghum leaf etc. then you can make your own pellets for next to nothing while you offset the cost of the pelletiser with the fuel you didn't need to buy and have fuel security! Potentially a single pelletiser could provide biomass pellets for an entire village or community but would need to be sized up for the demand.

The integrated water pasteurization and biochar filtration system I am building could be a great post-doctoral research topic entering a number of different research areas such as Permaculture (ecological systems design), Public Health (WASH/microbiology), Chemical Engineering (biochar), Water Chemistry, Climate science (biochar), Carbon Accounting (CRMs), Agriculture (chemicals), Mechanical Engineering (TLUDs), Physics (thermodynamics) and possibly more.  For anyone interested, the research paper could be titled something like "Carbon negative water pasteurization and water filtration for potable water". I'm not up to the academic challenge anymore (plus I don't have a PhD) but please get in touch if you are and I will try and assist you with your research.