We recently revisited our partners USTP (The University of Science and Technology of the Southern Philippines) and CarbonCycle in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines.

Nearly a year has passed since Lorin Symington was last in the Philippines working with CarbonCycle to power their ‘waste to riches’ business model with Lytefire, assisted by ‘on the job’ trainee students from the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Together, we are still seeking R&D funding from DOST and other Filipino government initiatives.

Since then, the mechanical engineering students have made a few modifications to the cashew roaster we Installed a Lytefire5 Multi at a facility owned by the women’s group BAPPCO (Best Agri Products Processing Cooperative).

The roasting drum now rotates automatically thanks to the installation of a 150W solar panel on top of the oven.

The students also created a new end-loading and unloading door for the cashews, actuated by reversing the direction of spin of the roasting drum.

Lorin, as well as Dale from CarbonCycle met with Bronson Mabulay, the Director of Innovation and Technology Solutions and Dr. Ambrosio Cultura, who last year was Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation the but is now President of the University. They brought with them the architect in charge of the new TechnoPark that is being built as a hub to promote the commercialisation of products developed by USTP students as they progress with their studies.

It was generally agreed that there would be some space saved for solar concentrators on the grounds and rooftops of the new TechnoPark. :)

The Best Agri Products Processing Cooperative (Bappco) is a busy hive of activity. Six days a week the men and (mostly) women of Bappco are hard at work processing cashews. The amount of attention that they pay to each individual cashew is really impressive. If you’ve ever wondered why cashews are so expensive, read on and discover the steps involved and how Lytefire tech is enabling this cooperative to maximise their profits.

Above, one the trainees, Gina Munleon, long time member of Bappco, adjusts the focal point during our training session. Previously, Bappco depended on tabletop ‘turbo roasters’ powered by electricity. On more than one occasion while I was in their space there were extended blackouts, effectively bottlenecking their production.

In addition to the roaster, our local partner CarbonCycle wanted us to develop a a new application to remove the toxic liquid contained within the shell of the coconut (for more information on that, see the previous blog post). This will help to streamline their production flow and it means that they don’t have to depend as much on outside service providers.

Read on for an overview of the processing performed by the lovely ladies of Bappco.

Sacks of cashew nuts are dropped off and are dumped out to be sorted. Misshapen, mouldy or off-colour nuts are sorted out and discarded. Then the nuts are spread out in the sun for pre-drying.

Next, they are either shipped to another community for fire-frying to extract the cashew nuts shell liquid (CNSL) or they are cracked directly, in which case the ladies must coat their hands and arms in vegetable oil to avoid irritation due to the acidic and toxic nature of the liquid. For cracking/splitting, Bappco has several table mounted nut splitters. Once the nuts are cracked, the kernel is extracted and either peeled or not peeled depending on the desired final product.

Next, the cashews are dried in a big electric drier. Up to 100kg of cashews are dried for 3 hours and then are ready for roasting. Until recently, Bappco would use a tabletop ‘Turbo Roaster’, a 1200w convection roasting chamber. The Turbo roaster can ‘white roast’ 2kg in about 20 minutes and needs to be stirred every 2-3 minutes to ensure even roasting. For lightly browned ‘toasted’ cashews, the process takes 35 minutes for 2 kilos. Our SOL5 toasts twice as fast and can roast beans without using the pre-drier, enabling Bappco to overcome electricity costs!

Next is sifting and sorting, where whole cashews, half cashews and bits and pieces are separated, then weighed and packaged. Each cashew is individually handled 4 times, and are handled in bulk an additional 4 times.

With our technologies in the production line, Bappco can now supply more cashews to their local markets and is making significant savings on electricity. Again, with the help of our local partner CarbonCycle and the University of the Southern Philippines (USTP) we’ll be gathering data and establishing just how much benefit these eco entrepreneurs are having on the environment as well as their bottom line.

Prototyping: beautiful (sometimes frustrating) and creative (sometimes repetitive trial and error iteration) prototyping! Building innovative new solutions to problems presented to us by our partner and their stakeholders on the ground.

We’re in a very interesting phase here on the outskirts of Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao, Philippines. We’ve built two hybrid oven/roasters, very similar to those we’ve deployed in Kenya, though with a few notable improvements to stability and durability around the light window and the door.

We’re currently developing two new applications for making charcoal and removing Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL). Below, a series of pictures showing various rough prototypes, stakeholder context and some fun around the workshop. Enjoy.

Coconuts:

Tropical paradise that it is, The Philippines has an abundance of coconuts. The hard shell of the coconut is on par with many hardwoods in terms of energy density and it is often converted into charcoal by burning it in an oxygen deprived environment (pyrolysis).

Above, an ‘improved’ steel drum charcoal kiln. Improved is a relative term… this is more efficient than building a great big fire and then dousing it with water or smothering it with dirt or sand, as is done in many places around the world. How would you like a smoky charcoal business in your neighbourhood? My initial calculations indicate 6kg of coconut shell makes 1kg of coconut shell charcoal, which is in line with UN averages for cottage industry charcoal making.

Some of the team during the second test of our coconut charcoal maker, after we tested it without insulation to get a baseline. This application is particularly exciting for me because this is a way to displace a huge amount of dirty emissions and increase the earning potential for coconut farmers. No longer will they burn up most of their coconut shells to get bit of charcoal. This application might triple the income from coconut shell byproducts for small farmers.

A very successful test run. 90% of the coconut shells were converted to charcoal, with only the shells at the bottom of the drum remaining uncarbonized. We’ll solve that by diverting the flammable gas that emerges from the chimney to the bottom of the drum.

A surprisingly sharp dividing line between converted and unconverted charcoal.

Cashews:

The Philippines is one of the major cashew producers in the world, especially considering the size of the country. If you’ve ever wondered why cashews are so expensive it is because they are a very weird nut whose processing must be very careful. The cashew nut grows on the bottom of the fruit of the cashew tree. Inside the shell, between the outer shell and the edible kernel on the inside is a dense spongy pith, filled with a remarkable cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL). The liquid is highly acidic, flammable and quite toxic!

It is a raw material of multiple uses in developing drugs, antioxidants, fungicides, and biomaterials. It is used in tropical folk medicine and for antitermite treatment of timber. CNSL may be used as a resin for carbon composite products and as petrochemical substitute, etc. Wikipedia
As such, CNSL has a value on par with refined petroleum products, making it a potentially interesting source of income.

Traditional cottage industry processing involves heating the cashew nuts in a perforated pan on an open flame. Once they are sufficiently heated, they burst, and the CNSL spews forth and everything catches fire. They’re removed from the fire, dumped on the ground and doused with collected rainwater.

Cashew processing is a family affair. Once the cashews are cooled, the women crack them open and extract the kernel. The shells and the fluid are all the fuel the fire needs to burn and smoke like crazy all day long. The smoke is acrid and heavy and wafts across the neighbourhood, to the detriment of the health of all involved.

First prototype… steel mesh on square tube - aka what happens when you stick the nuts in the focal point? They burst! There’s no fire. There’s less smoke. However, you need to stand in the sun constantly waving this contraption. Also, the focal point is so hot that the CNSL on side facing the sun bursts out, but on the sides the liquid remains (think about how much solar energy you get at sunset versus noon).

It might not be ideal for CNSL removal but it makes a great fish frier!

How to get even roasting? Build a steel mesh drum, put it in a box with a window and fire away! However, the bursting of the liquid from the shell coats the glass, which is not sustainable.

We’ve made a few more prototypes and we’re zeroing in on a good design… a design where we’ll replace young Jerson here with a solar panel and a motor.

The new faces you see are some of the students from the University of Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) who are doing their summer internship with us, some of whom will continue on to quantify certain aspects of GoSol’s solar tech and assist with data collection and validation of results reported by CarbonCycle and the end users.

Initial tests on the rooftop of the library on USTP’s Cagayan de Oro campus.

The great news is that the ladies and gentlemen from the cashew cooperative we’re dealing with say that the nuts are of a high quality, that the liquid doesn’t get forced deeper into the nut and contaminate the kernel, which often happens with the open fire frying method, meaning they must sell those nuts at a discount. They’re excited to receive more training on the Lytefire and integrate it to their production.

Stay tuned, because that’s the next phase of the project!

Writing to you from the Philippines, we’re entering the most exciting phase of this collaboration. The construction of 4 Lytefire 5 units is complete, and now we’re testing, prototyping and training end users with the new applications we’ve built. I thought this would be a good time to share more about our partner in this endeavour: Dr. Dale Llentic, founder of CarbonCycle Processing Inc.

Dale is the eldest of 2 siblings and a family man with three adorable young children and a lovely wife. He studied at a state university and graduated as a doctor of veterinary medicine, working in the industry at various private and public institutions until he had a wake-up call and decided to start a business devoted to environmental sustainability and empowering farmers.

He witnessed the lack of sustainable practices among farmers in the countryside of the Philippines, not only in his home region of Siargao but across many regions and sectors and was motivated to do something about it and came up with the idea of CarbonCycle: “CarbonCycle will be a sustainability provider for farmers and the Agrofood industry to utilize everything with the use of renewable energy to produce food, fuel, fiber, chemicals and add value to agricultural products. The importance is given to save as much carbon as possible without emitting it to the environment in the form of CO2.” The Philippines are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change since it is an island nation, exposed to typhoons on a regular basis.

Using renewable energy to process waste into valuable products, it is possible to greatly increase income for small scale producers as well as industrial customers. Coconut shells, cashew nuts and pineapple pulp are just a few of the opportunities for enhanced sustainability, food security, more dignified work and pollution reduction all across the Philippines.

Dale started CarbonCycle in 2014 with the intention to improve recycling in the Philippines, which is the third largest contributor to ocean plastic pollution in the world. Realizing that renewable energy would have a transformative impact on the industry, he incorporated plans to include solar thermal energy into his business and quickly gained momentum. His business plan was ambitious but would clearly have important impact on people and profits. He was one of 5 winners of the the BPI Sinag Awards for social entrepreneurs in 2018, winning PHP500,000 ( 8600€)

“Winning the social entrepreneurship award was a highlight in my life, it gave me a boost in pushing for a more sustainable business concepts that are inclusive. This award became the spark for making this project with Solar Fire Concentration Ltd happen.” … “In striving for carbon awareness, business will be more sustainable because recycling will be more into organic and less into fossil products. I plan to build a concentrated solar thermal pyrolysis plant that can produce oil, carbon (sic:charcoal) and electricity.”

From a BPI Sinag article about CarbonCycle: "Dale had invited some classmates to join the company. Three of them were engineers: a civil engineer, an electrical engineer and an electronics engineer. One other classmate invited to join was an accounting graduate, while a fifth classmate was in marketing. “My engineer classmates are the ones who are keen on researching, looking for opportunities and converting the opportunities into viable products,” said Dale."

The agrifood industry is receiving a lot of attention from investors in the Philippines and through CarbonCycle’s inclusive and sustainable approach to doing business, Dale has been able to attract investors and partners who will be invaluable in catalyzing exponential growth to improve incomes for many small farmers while at the same time reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions. One of these partnerships is with the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP), with whom SFCO and CarbonCycle have signed a tripartite agreement to collect data based on the usage of the Lytefire 5 units CarbonCycle will be implementing, as well as for the development of more advanced industrial solutions for pyrolysis of plastic and agriwaste.

Above, Dale Llentic, founder of CarbonCycle, on a fact finding mission with a coconut shell charcoal producer.

We’re excited to be working with such a dedicated partner, whose values mirror closely our own, and I’m very much looking forward to presenting the results of this collaboration which is showcasing even more custom tailored solutions that will improve incomes and quality of life for small scale farmers while reducing their contributions to climate change and making them more resilient to the challenges ahead.

We are happy to announce the start of a collaboration with the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines.

Carbon Cycle ltd is very dynamic to initiate our partnership to implement our technology for micro-entrepreneurs in the Philippines. In that context, it seemed strategically needed to engage with the University.

Mr Bronson Mabulay, the Director of Innovation and Technology Solutions and Dr. Ambrosio Cultura, President of the University, are very motivated by this new partnership. A new TechnoPark is being build at the University as a hub to promote the commercialisation of products developed by USTP students as they progress with their studies. The students from the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences are very motivated to join and work with the GoSol tech.

We’re excited about the cooperation start and look forward to start engaging the students very soon.

Last week I was honoured to be invited as a speaker to the 2nd Innovation Summit 2019 hosted by The University of Science and Technology of the Southern Philippines (USTP) who’s now our partner. The two day event was filled with sessions from industry, government and academe. I spoke on the subject of Solar Thermal Energy for Agrofood Processing in the Face of Climate Change.

A few highlights from the event were the ‘fireside chat’ with Diosdado P. Banatao, a prominent Filipino businessman now based in Silicone Valley and Chairman of PhilDev, a session by Avril de Torres from the Centre for Ecology, Energy and Development, the signing ceremony for the Memorandum of Agreement between GoSol, CarbonCycle and USTP, and the pitching competition where USTP students competed to give their tech startups a head start in the business world.

The Philippines as a country recognises that they are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the city of Cagayan de Oro as well as USTP are positioning themselves to innovate solutions to the challenge. The economy of the Philippines is also weighted towards food processing, so there was quite a lot of interest in my talk, as I presented how solar thermal can help companies improve their bottom line and get in front of government policies regarding emissions and energy use.

I met a number of student innovators who were presenting their final projects, many of them in mechanical food processing and I exchanged contact info with a few of them because we’ll need passionate young engineers and scientists in the coming years. A shout out to the teams responsible for the coconut weaver, spray dehydrator, rice husk powered dehydrator, floating river hydro pump and these guys, demonstrating that the answer to the age old question ‘how many engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?’ is, in fact, two. :P

It’s always a pleasure to meet and learn from other people involved in the fight against climate change, as well as thought leaders in any field. I’m grateful to USTP for the experience and am looking forward to our collaboration.

I’m extremely excited to be travelling to the Philippines to work with our new client and partner, CarbonCycle. I’ve never been anywhere in Asia and to be able to travel to such a tropical paradise and leave behind the -15C depths of Canadian winter makes this trip extra special.

I’ve rented a motorbike and I managed to get in a little beach time shortly after my arrival:

The people of the Philippines have been very welcoming so far, and everyone seems to be smiling. I’m starting to pick up the occasional word in Tagalog and Bisaya but fortunately most people speak at least some English.

Back in the workshop, we’re already hard at work fabricating the SOL5’s in on the outskirts of Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao Province:

From left to right, yours truly, Lucio, Albert, Marvin and Willy.

In the next few days I’m going to visit the end user communities and cooperatives to meet the teams and take some measurements to fine tune our solutions.