It's been too long!

Sorry for the delay. Who would have thought? Reliable internet is hard to find in rural Ghana!

There have been a slew of updates since our last post. After the broken press, we arrived the next morning to find that the manager of the saw mill donated new lumber to the project. Due to his generosity, we were able to fix the press in no time. Following the repair, we made about 20 different mixtures of briquettes, conducted burn tests, and produced more of the briquettes that burned well. Production with the press is in full swing, and we are looking forward to more samples for testing.

We have made some great progress on the community involvement front. After working during the morning producing briquettes, we headed home for lunch. Upon arriving back at the press, two of the sawmill workers were eager to show us the briquettes that they had developed.

We were fortunate to be able to visit the Kwame Nukramah University of Science and Technology. There we met with three very helpful academics, all with experience in briquetting biomass and one who specializes in rural community enterprise. We learned a lot from our meetings and are excited about future collaboration on this project and others.

Friday is our last day in Patriensa, and nobody is looking forward to leaving. We have accomplished much in our short time, and are feverishly working now to make the most of our remaining time. We will update you after project completion, goodbye for now.