[Stoves] Jatropha Briquette Information from Legacy

[Anna Segur]

Dear Mr. Stanley,  

Thank you for your detailed response.  We will be happy to cite your work
and share any findings with your organization.  Bernard says he has some of
the manuals, but I am not sure if he has the Theory and Apps one.  I will be
checking this weekend.  

 

The student team (Boston Nyer and Kristen Matsumura) will be following up on
the technical information that you have outlined below.

 

Thank you!

Anna

From: Richard Stanley [mailto:rstanley at legacyfound.org] 
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 4:35 PM
To: Anna Segur
Cc: Stoves and biofuels network; biomass; fuelbriquetting
Subject: Re: Jatropha Briquette Information

 

Anna, 

Thanks for your enquiry but we have not tested Jatropa per se.   I am
confident though, that somewhere in one of the above copied list
serves/newsgroups, there is the answer to your questions about Jatropa
combustion and emissions..

 

As far as its use in briquette making -of the wet process ambient temp low
pressure type which we extoll-, it is both tempting resource and likely to
be a very problematic one...  While the cake  can serve as a fuel in its own
right, if it is symbolic of the other types of seed cakes expellate we have
attempted to use, it can cause  problems when added into the mix of wet
pulped agro residues, and compressed / dewatered, into a briquette,  in the
usual fashion.

 

 The reason is that the the residual adhered oil in said cake tends to
lubricate  the otherwise   tightly compacted,  elastically deformed, and
randomly aligned, interlocking  fibers --which do the real work of binding
of the briquette. The resulting briquettes are mushy and weak even after
weeks of drying in the open (sunny) air. The same blends-- without such
seedcake additives-- typically dry to ambient humidity in a few days under
the same climatic conditions.   

Of course lowering the proportion of the expellate will have better
results...I unfortunatley do not have any numbers on this though. 

 

What I know you can do, is use the "foots" of the oils -the "oily chunky mix
of saturated bits of the plant which managed to get through the seive and
settle out of the oil. This stuff is otherwise useless. It always
accumilates on the bottom of the oil collection tray and the floor of such
pressing operations. It is useful to briquetters however when they dip their
already-dried briquettes in it <to a depth of  about 1/4th their height for
a few seconds. That will consumme about 1-3 cubic cm of the material.
Provided that the other ingredients and prep process has been done
correctly, a very nice quick-igniting --yet still structurally integral--
briquette is the result.

 

On the issue of jatropa combustion and emissivity:

I was in contact with ITDG (UK) on production of Jatropa in Central America,
in March of this year. In that exchange they cited this report 

 

From: "Rebecca Clements" <rclement at itdg.org.pe>

Date: March 9, 2010 1:48:22 PM PST

 RE: Project in Nicaragua

 

 

On the Jatropha work in Central America, this was a review of the

impacts of small-scale bioenergy initiatives on livelihoods carried out

for the DFID PISCES project (www.pisces.or.ke) and funded jointly by the

FAO. 

The report can be found here: 

http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/aj991e/aj991e00.HTM

 

I do not know if there was serious discussion about use of it in briquettes
though.. just the use of the oil per se.

 

As well, there has been lots of discussion in the above stoves and biomass
groups (ccy'd above)  about the use of  jatopa oil for stoves and lamps.
Perusing their archives might turn up something for you. 

 

Please also feel free to use whatever you need from our 'Theory and Apps'
manual: Just give Legacy Foundation a mention as the source...

 

I'm sorry for not being able to provide direct data for you but at least I
hope this helps you to dig deeper...Anna. Kind regards to Prof. Amadei, and
if he is still around, his former engineering student Michael Lupton, then
head of CU's EWB Haiti project). 

 

Kindly ccy us all on your findings. Its amazing how little we really know
about biomass utilisation for fuel, in our petroleum culture ..well maybe
its not so amazing but its very much needed now, eh? 

 

Kind regards, 

Richard Stanley

www.legacyfound.org

 

 

 

On Sep 24, 2010, at 1:25 PM, Anna Segur wrote:





Dear Mr. Stanley

 

I am writing on behalf of Engineering in Developing Communities at the
University of Colorado.  Our founder, Bernard Amadei also established EWB
which is listed as a partner on your website.  I saw your video on youtube
regarding fuel briquette production at the Legacy Foundation.  Two of our
graduate students are going to be working on a jatropha project in Guatemala
that involves value added processing of the seedcake. The producer groups
hope to make fertilizer and fuel briquettes. 

 

I saw on your website that there is a document The Theory and Applications
>From Around the World, that we are interested in obtaining to find out
research precedent regarding jatropha briquette emissions and combustion
testing (if there is any).   If it would be possible to share this
information to serve as a foundation for the graduate students research
project, we would greatly appreciate it. 

 

Thanks,

 

Anna Segur

Program Manager

Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities

www.edc-cu.org

428 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0428

Tel: 303-492-5606

Skype: ASegur

 

 

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