[Stoves] sausage maker adaptor for manual briquette

[Xavier Brandao]

Dear Roger,

Hum that's interesting, and that could be the explanation of the failure of
my cooking test today :
Just out of curiosity, I tried to make briquettes with 80% charcoal dust,
20% paper, and press them by hand. I could make a round shape, but they
constantly lose material when they are shaped and when they are transported.
Still they can dry, and go in the stove pretty much under the ball shape. It
seems like with the heat, they fall into pieces, then to dust. The result: I
wasn't able to boil 1 liter of water, the stove was full of charcoal dust,
and the fire almost extinguished by itself.
I read, heard from the cooks who test the briquettes, and saw by myself that
the 80% charcoal dust / 20% paper briquettes were burning for a long time.
The cooking is also very clean. But they are almost impossible to light.

Would we have, if no high pressure exerted during the production process  :
- briquettes with a lot of binder : long duration, but energy is radiated
over time, so it is difficult to boil water. That is actually what an
experienced food vendor told me about my briquettes : good for heating food,
not for cooking food.
- briquettes with small to no binder : easy to light, makes smoke, but more
energy is radiated in a short amount of time. Can fall into pieces and
ultimately into dust.

Or am I wrong?

I guess high pressure solves the problem, and also high temperature by
"cooking the briquettes" during production.

Cheers,

Xavier



------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:10:24 -0800
From: Fireside Hearth <firesidehearthvashon at hotmail.com>
To: <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: Re: [Stoves] sausage maker adaptor for manual briquette
Message-ID: <BLU125-W1468D22C92D7DF87BCF7B3C3C80 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


Hello Xavier, 

    Here in the States we have sold various "prest logs" for years. I think
we have tested, burned and sold every thing that has ever been made of saw
dust and wood chipping materials. This information may not help you as you
are working with different materials, but here's what we have found.
"pressed logs" tend to expand in the firebox giving off allot of heat at the
beginning of the burn cycle, but then you end up with allot of unburned
product in the bottom of the stove which often extinguishes the fire. The
extruded logs (450,000 lbs pressure) come to an internal temperature of
about 650 degrees f> during the extrusion process. This causes the lignents
in the wood pulp to melt and once cooled is the "glue" which holds the
material together in log form. These logs are harder to light by a long
shot, but are much longer lasting in the firebox, burn completely, and VERY
cleanly. Our burn temps get so high that we often find the ash will become
molten in the bottom of the firebox. In our stove...one of these 5 lb logs
will give us an 8.5 to 10 hour burn with a fairly constant btu output. The
pressed logs are only good for a 5 to 6 hour burn time.

          Food for thought, 

                 Roger