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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Tom,<br>
<br>
<br>
I never had any luck carbonizing grass/weeds with the
grass-a-fire. One would rat hole and the other needed denser
charcoal bed. But Roger Sampson rice husk method showed hope.<br>
<br>
Working full time makes it unreliable to harvest dry grass/weeds
late in the season at least for this bag of old achy bones. In
other words it's not an easy fuel for a peasant. The baler went to
the sale a bit ago and the mower and rake goes this spring. But I
now have an old and almost functioning flail harvester that should
work for compost production.<br>
<br>
I hope to start phasing out grasses with Staghorn Sumac a much
more usable fuel.<br>
<br>
<br>
Jeff<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 12/02/2013 11:39 PM, Tom Miles wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:002f01ceefe1$9bf974e0$d3ec5ea0$@trmiles.com"
type="cite">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Jeff,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">We
find that biochar from a downdraft gasifier composted 15% v/v
with alfalfa and wood chips makes a very nice compost. We have
used it as a substitute for a vermiculite-peat-bark blend.
Tree seedling response is generally good. Some species are pH
sensitive and the alfalfa pushes the compost pH up so
adjustments need to be made. In Japan Dr. Ogawa rinses high pH
grass (bamboo) chars to reduce soluble alkali before
application to the tree root zone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Biochar-peat
and biochar–coco peat blends work well. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">So
if you have a gasifier in a location where there is no market
for power you can make heat for greenhouses and a char
byproduct that you can compost for use in the greenhouse. We
estimate that the combined savings from the heat (propane) and
soil amendments for a 10 MMBtuh (3 MW) system are about
$350,000 per year. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">David
Yarrow likes chars from grasses. You can make char in your
grass-a-fire. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Tom
</span></p>
</blockquote>
<br>
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