Vuthisa Technologies cc
Water in Pietermaritzburg

€Vuthisa Technologies was formed in 2005 to 'investigate and disseminate new and innovative technologies to developing economies'. Give us a call if you want us to look at your existing village cooking needs or if you want to start making charcoal with our kilns. Spreading awareness of the latest Rocket stove technologies and introducing customers to the EcoZoom stove range and creating awareness around our Charcoal kilns forms the core of our business. Vuthisa Technologies has 12 years experience in participating in projects concerning indoor air pollution and will continue to investigate and disseminate new technologies in our region. Vuthisa Technologies supports and promotes various other initiatives such as The Hippo Water Roller Project and Legacy Foundation briquetting technology (electronic how-to manuals).

More than 600 ha of infested areas have been rehabilitated back to pristine grasslands to date, preventing biodiversity loss. Vuthisa (South Africa) supports Legacy Foundation’s briquette making process. We co-developed a hand operated press that can make fuel briquettes. Biltong is a form of dried, cured meat that originated in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Beef Jerky is also a form of dried meat, having its origins in North and South America. Jerky, in its most basic form, is simply dehydrated meat. Most jerky, however, is marinated in something, be it salt, vinegar, vegetable, or sugar solution, and then seasoned with one or more spices. Biltong is dehydrated as one large chunk or strip of meat, and then sliced into bite-sized pieces. Jerky can be made from either whole meat or ground meat. Our biochar production process only requires fossil fuel to execute short-hauling and transportation activities of the end product, which will not contain any chemical constituents. The earth kiln is very labour intensive and besides that, it pollutes much more as there is no after-burning mechanism or the capability to produce biochar in a bonafide retort system. The market potential for waste management solutions is large. Further to that there are thousands of tea estates, saw mills, timber companies and various grain and oilseed farms in South Africa. Due to shortened cycle times (4 to 12 hours) small diameter feedstock (commonly found in landfills) that typically turns to ash in larger kilns and prolonged burns can now successfully be carbonised. The demand for Biochar and charcoal produced efficiently is certainly growing. The South African government also has a favourable tax arrangement in place for companies that hire workers to process methane emitting waste. Firewood dependence for cooking in the developing world has resulted in forests being depleted at a rate of 2.5 to 3% per year. It is here in the poorest parts of the world that villagers spend a good portion of their time gathering wood to cook, heat and make charcoal. To counter this dependence on wood, efforts were made in the early 80’s to come up with alternatives. One such alternative being explored was making fuel briquettes from non-woody biomass for cooking. In 1994 the Legacy Foundation, USA, picked up on Bryant’s briquette making process and extended the outreach activities. The Legacy Foundation have now launched their new Ratchet Press to replace the wooden presses and its now manufactured in South Africa. Quite a large proportion of people that buy the user manuals never commit themselves to building the actual presses, possibly due to time or money constraints or they lack workshop tools and/or technical know-how. We have adapted our system to produce quality Biochar now as many of you know.