[Stoves] [biochar-production] Re: Stoves Digest, Vol 14, Issue 17

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Frank

 

My main disagreement is the term Fixed Carbon and that it means the total
weigh DAF where it should be a measure of carbon in that fraction. I will
need to get over that. 

 

I assure you that Fixed Carbon does not have a clear and scientific meaning.
I have given up hope with analyses that use the term. That means, it is
'helpful' but not an exact measure of anything.

 

It really is taken to mean the carbon that happens not to disappear when the
sample is treated in a certain way. Treat it in another way and the 'fixed'
portion changes so it is an inherent property of the protocol times the
fuel, not a property of the fuel alone.

 

The coal industry is so large that they feel they can get away with internal
definitions and that makes huge problems for stovers because we never really
know what we are being handed to burn. With biomass that has historically
been the 'chemistry' of the fuel contents. But the principal users of 'fixed
carbon' are the coal consumers like power stations. To give the DAF value of
anything is misleading because we need to know what % it is of the fuel, not
of part of the fuel.

 

There are many tricks played by people promoting processed fuels that
involve switching the fuel energy content numbers during the conversation.
For example, people will report the 'as received' heat content as the fuel's
heating value (which is true) and then point out that their 'Processing'
increases this to a much higher 'DAF value' showing a '60% increase in
energy per kg' even though it takes energy to remove the water and calculate
out the ash.  Plain fraud. Whenever someone reports the energy content you
have to not only ask on what basis the figure was derived, but also
investigate the protocol to see if it really is what it claims to be. Many
people believe that there is free energy to be harvested in this manner.

 

Regards

Crispin

 

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