|
|
Honey bee publish details |
| More
Information |
|
|
|
|
| Category |
CHIN XX |
|
|
| Title |
Cleaning the Carbon Chinese Way |
|
|
| Abstract |
Prof. Zhang Liyan and her team comprising, Weiwei Tse and Miyabi Ren have been bringing at Chinese version of Honey Bee Newsletter. Here are a few innovations at grassroots: |
|
|
| Details |
Eco- friendly CharcoalLi Kaibing (Zhijiang, Hubei Province) Winters are quite cold in the Jianghan Plains of the Hubei province. People use charcoal for heating and cooking, resulting in a great demand for charcoal during the winter months. After the prohibition on burning charcoal as per the revised policy of the State Forest Conservation, resources and supply of charcoal reduced drastically. There was a major imbalance between demand and supply. In the autumn of 2000, Li Kaibing, a farmer, was asked by his customer to help buy some charcoal. He went to many counties to search but failed because of the government policy. Li heard that people in Hunan province used rice husk to make charcoal. So he went to Hunan and bought a machine with 10000 RMB. But it proved to be not very good. So he was consistently experimenting, on designing a charcoal burning stove since then. After three years in 2003, he succeeded in developing an environmental-friendly charcoal. Traditional charcoal is made from cutting down trees and burning the wood to form charcoal. This new charcoal is however made from waste like leftover pieces of lumber, cotton stalk sand corn straws, by crushing them, drying them and then charring them. The charcoal obtained from such leftover waste has the advantages of generating more heat, burning for a longer time and not releasing the carbonised particles into the air, thus curbing air pollution. At the end of the year 2004, Li Kaibing, had entered into an agreement with the Yuanan and Wufeng Counties to develop fungi producing bacteria in the forest, recycle all edible fungi and use it to make the new charcoal material. Li Kaibing is now engaged in the mass production of this environmental-friendly charcoal, supplying it in the Plains as well as in 20 other cities and counties of the West Mountain regions of Hubei. People from far off places come to procure this charcoal. This new charcoal, termed by many as Ògreen carbonÓ, has effectively controlled deforestation, thereby protecting precious natural resources. Now Li has mass produced his product, which not only is sold to plains area but also 20 mountain areas.Chengni InkpadJikun Tian (Liaocheng, Shandong province) Jikun Tian is a researcher of unique skills of traditional art at the Liaocheng, Traditional Culture Research Institute, Liaocheng, Shandong Province. Chengni inkpad is a branch of the art of ceramic inkpad, which has been linked to the Song Dynasty, but has since been lost. Jikun loved drawing and painting since childhood. But his family was too poor to support his education. But Tian found that seal carving was also a kind of art and was a good way for making living. So he learned seal carving from an old folk artisan. In the 1990’s, he learned that Han Tianheng, an artist from Shanghai, collected two Chengni ink stones of Song Dynasty, which was very famous. This became the trigger for Tian’s innovation on Chengni inkpad. Gradually, he worked his way to rediscovering the art of making the Chengni inkpad, which was once lost and hence made a valuable contribution towards handing down the legacy of the Chengni inkpad. He invented it on May 25, 2007. All the materials used to make it were collected by him. He carved the inkpad into different shapes and over 200 ones with beautiful Chinese characters.Chestnut cleanerYu Daqing (Xiaogan, Hubei) Water chestnuts grow on hilly or slanted ares. In 2000, the Hanchuan Township in the Hubei Province was encouraged to take up the cultivation of water chestnuts. Mr Yu Daqing, a well-known carpenter, contracted three acres of land for the cultivation of chestnuts. Growing and cultivating chestnuts is a laborious and time consuming job. The cleaning of the chestnuts has to be done manually and if not done carefully it damages the chestnut, thus causing wastage. In 2005, Mr Yu Daqing toyed with the idea of an automatic chestnut cleaning machine. He consulted agricultural and mechanical experts, gathered all necessary information and started designing such a machine. After five months of untiring efforts, he assembled an automatic cleaning machine. By October 2007, Yu Daqing had improvised and upgraded his design to include a water tank and few other features, making the chestnut cleaning machine more convenient to use. This automatic cleaning machine is highly efficient and easy to operate. It greatly reduces the cleaning time and there is minimal damage to the delicate chestnuts.Automatic quantitative soil loosening and fertilizing mechanismGenzhu (Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia) Although mechanised agricultural machinery is used in the rural areas, certain agricultural processes are done manually. For example, the top dressing of corns is done manually by fertilizing the roots of the corn plants with a hand-held apparatus filled with fertiliser, while walking through the corn fields. It not only is time-consuming and laborious, and it is also difficult to carry the apparatus filled with the fertiliser. Genzhu, a farmer from Inner Mongolia, was determined to devise an instrument which could top-dress the fields quantitatively and in place. He was born in 1966 and had completed primary school education. He was interested in invention since he was a child. He helped a lot to his villagers by repairing their machines and electric appliances. He finally invented a device in July, 2007. An automatic two process topdressing and soil loosening machine, using different farm machinery and equipment. The soil loosening equipment is mounted on a 4-wheeled bike or tractor and is driven through the field to loosen the soil. While other topdressing equipments, are not only cumbersome to use, but also result in wastage of fertilizer and cannot determine the exact fertilization point. Mr Genzhu’s innovative equipment can carry out both the processes simultaneously. The topdressing of the soil is done at a fixed point and with using a fixed amount of fertiliser. This ensures high efficiency, saves time and labour, avoids wastage of fertiliser and promotes the fertilising effect fully, while not increasing the manufacturing costs. He applied for patent of his invention in 2008 and got it in the same year. By March 2009, he had produced 8 devices and sold them by 2000 RMB for each one. Gen said that because he lacked funds and machines, he would like to cooperate with others to mass produce his invention. |
|
|
| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 27(3) 19-20, 2016 |
|
 
|
|
