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In Nepal, a viable solution for environmental management, food and water security is the production of biochar, a carbon material made of plants burned in low oxygen conditions. Currently, the biochar is manufactured into charcoal briquettes and sold on the market for energy usage, however this may not provide the best value for community members who make less than a dollar a day and sell the biochar for as little as 16 cents per kilogram. This thesis seeks to improve the price of biochar and help their livelihoods as well as explore innovative solutions. One way to improve biochar while addressing water security problems is to create activated carbon, which uses its heightened porosity to adsorb contaminants from water or air. Activated carbon is also worth 100x the price of biochar. This thesis evaluates the mass content of biochar produced in Nepal, comparing it to literature values, and performed gravimetric and thermogravimetric analysis, comparing it to Activated Charcoal. Analysis of the biochar system used in Nepal reveals that the byproduct of biochar, biofuels, is highly underutilized. The higher heating value of biochar is 17.95 MJ/kg, which is much lower than other charcoals which burn around 30 MJ/kg. Low volatile content, less than 5% in biochar, provides a smokeless briquette, which is favorable on the market, however low heating value and misutilizations of biofuels in the solution indicate that creating a briquette is not the best use for biochar. Ash content is really high in this biochar, averaging around 12% and it may be due to the feedstock, a composite between Mikania and Lantana, which have 5.23% and 10.77% ash content respectively. This does not necessarily indicate a poor quality biochar, since ash values can vary widely between charcoals. Producing activated charcoal from this biochar is a favored solution; it will increase the price of the biochar, provide water security solutions, and be an appropriate process for this biochar, where heating value and underutilization of biofuel byproducts pose a problem.
ContributorsCayer, Joelle Marie Caroline (Author) / Chhetri, Netra (Thesis director) / Henderson, Mark (Committee member) / Deng, Shuguang (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Globally, suicide is the second leading cause of death, and accounts for about 800,000 deaths per year worldwide (WHO, 2013). The majority of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries (LMIC), yet the research and documentation of suicide is heavily skewed to higher income countries where more systematic reporting of suicide occurs, along with a larger existing evidence base. Nepal is one LMIC where the speculated burden of suicide is high, with a predicted suicide rate of 7th highest in the world. Using both public-health and ethnographic approaches, the current study contributes to the discussion about suicide in Nepal. The primary goal of this research study is to understand the similarities and differences in perceived drivers for suicide for men and women in Nepal. Interviews conducted in Kathmandu and Jumla, Nepal were transcribed, and free lists which described drivers for suicide for men and women were extracted from the narratives. Thematic codes were then created to classify narrative responses into a cultural domain. The most salient codes listed by males and females for drivers for male/female suicide were analyzed and further contextualized using interview dialogue. Findings reveal social and relational drivers of suicide as the most salient for both genders, suggesting that suicide is not an individual act, but something that is caused by the broader, social environment. Additionally, perceptions of the reasons for suicide vary between gender. Perceived drivers for suicide for males are more often correlated with financial burden and the responsibilities tied to being the source of income and prosperity in a highly patriarchal society. Violence and inequality are perceived to be among the main drivers for female suicide. Findings contribute to the ethnographic research of suicide and the suicide literature in Nepal, and generate a better understanding of how reasons for suicide differ among males and females.
ContributorsFarrier, Brianna (Author) / Maupin, Jonathan (Thesis director) / Hagaman, Ashley (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Using the case of a children's home in Nepal, Ama Ghar, this study utilizes concepts of resiliency and community service to assess children's ability to react and recover from disaster. As earthquakes continues to strike rural and urban populations \u2014 from Mexico to Italy \u2014 learning the recovery stories of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake from the Ama Ghar family may further understanding on how to promote resiliency for youth in a post-disaster stage. Although community service in many respects has been supported as a successful youth development tool in Western contexts, researchers call for a more extensive look that compares variables of community service through a global lens. Because of the research backing the benefits that community involvement has on promoting civic responsibility, citizenship, and human and societal well-being, this study proposes that facilitating an active role through community service is a positive way to generate resilience among a child. After conducting in-depth interviews on Ama Ghar caretakers and alumni, it was ultimately concluded that there is a positive relationship between community service and overall resilience of a child. It was found that different forms of discussions of disaster, community service, and resilience shows the complex interconnectedness among these attributes and how this relationship accounts for the building up of resiliency among children who have faced disaster such as the earthquake in Nepal. Learning about the nurturing of children within the blended Ama Ghar family and their vivid first-hand experiences may be scalable however more in-depth research should be conducted to fully understand the complex factors that contribute to the rebuilding of well-being for disaster-affected youth.
ContributorsZapata, Lindsay (Author) / Chhetri, Nalini (Thesis director) / Legg, Eric (Committee member) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
After visiting Nepal and seeing the problem of potable drinking water, there needed to be a solution to purify it. Simultaneously, local national forests have been overrun with two invasive plant species: Mikania micrantha and Lantana camara. Both a very fast-growing species and can be turned into biochar. If the resulting is made through an effective process, then the community would be able to work less making each batch of biochar and make more money per batch, whereby the market already exists. The community could grow their profits even further by activating the created charcoal, which fetches an even better price. Most Importantly, among other important uses, the activated charcoal could also be used in clean drinking water systems. The prospect of using activated charcoal as water purifying agents can be tested in a future design of experiments. This design of experiments would assess the effectiveness of the activated charcoal, to determine which pore size is the most cost effective at filtering out pollutants. This thesis focuses on researching different types of biochar kilns, clean drinking water systems, and the use of charcoal in clean drinking water systems.
ContributorsBarron, Timothy (Author) / Chhetri, Netra (Thesis director) / Henderson, Mark (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
There is an increasing need to understand and develop clean cooking technologies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The provision of clean energy where modern energy is not available is important in advancing the 17 sustainable development goals as set by the United Nations. Green charcoal is a cooking fuel technology made from ground and compressed biochar, an organic material made from heating a feedstock (biomass, forest residues, agriculture waste, invasive species, etc.) in an oxygen deprived environment to high temperatures. Green charcoal behaves similarly to wood charcoal or coal but is different from these energy products in that it is produced from biomass, not from wood or fossil fuels. Green charcoal has gained prominence as a cooking fuel technology in South-East Asia recently. Within the context of Nepal, green charcoal is currently being produced using lantana camara, an invasive species in Nepal, as a feedstock in order to commoditize the otherwise destructive plant. The purpose of this study was to understand the innovation ecosystem of green charcoal within the context of Nepal’s renewable energy sector. An innovation ecosystem is all of the actors, users and conditions that contribute to the success of a particular method of value creation. Through a series of field interviews, it was determined that the main actors of the green charcoal innovation ecosystem are forest resources governance agencies, biochar producers, boundary organizations, briquette producers, distributors/vendors, the political economy of energy, and the food culture of individuals. The end user (user segment) of this innovation ecosystem is restaurants. Each actor was further analyzed based on the Ecosystem Pie Model methodology as created by Talmar, et al. using the actor’s individual resources, activities, value addition, value capture, dependence on green charcoal and the associated risk as the building blocks for analysis. Based on ecosystem analysis, suggestions were made on how to strengthen the green charcoal innovation ecosystem in Nepal’s renewable energy sector based on actor-actor and actor-green charcoal interactions, associated risks and dependence, and existing knowledge and technology gaps. It was determined that simply deploying a clean cooking technology does not guarantee success of the technology. Rather, there are a multitude of factors that contribute to the success of the clean cooking technology that deserve equal amounts of attention in order to successfully implement the technology.
ContributorsDieu, Megan (Author) / Chhetri, Netra (Thesis director) / Henderson, Mark (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This thesis sought to better understand the process of creating biochar in kilns representative of those used in current biochar processes in Chitwan National Park, Nepal and surrounding areas. The project had two main objectives: First, design and build a scale kiln representative of those in Nepal. This will allow a multitude of future projects to have access to a well-built kiln in which to run experiments, probe conditions and overall understand the process of pyrolysis. After approval of the plan and construction the second phase of the project began. Second, using the scaled kiln, pyrolyze quantities of biomass and capture the temperature profiles as the burn is started through until it is completed. Using qualitative methods the biochar was then analyzed and this quality compared against the temperature profiles captured. Using these profiles it was hoped that a relationship between how the temperature profiles behave and the quality of the biochar can be produced. The maximum temperature was also be analyzed to find useful correlations to the behavior of the process within the kiln. The project did not find any useful correlation between the maximum temperatures, but it did find useful correlations between temperature profiles and the resulting biochar. A description of how to analyze biochar in the field was also established to help researchers and farmers rate biochar quality while in the field. The kiln itself is housed on the Polytechnic Campus of Arizona State University in the Global Resolve outside storage area at the time of writing.
ContributorsCluff, Dallin Michael (Author) / Henderson, Mark (Thesis director) / Roger, Brad (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
This paper aims to effectively portray the stories of migrant laborers who have fallen victim to a system of powerful and exploitative institutions and governments that provide labor for the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The purpose of this case study, therefore, is to both uncover the causes and magnitude of the crisis and to understand the relationship between the victimized laborers and the perpetrators. Through this study, I present the complex dynamics of a mass geopolitical operation that leads to the victimization of Nepali workers. I specifically outline why this issue is complicated and what the proper interventions may be to resolve it.
ContributorsNyaupane, Pratik (Co-author) / Kassing, Jeffrey W. (Thesis director) / Dutta, Uttaran (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05