[Stoves] corn cobs and char

[Tom Miles]

Ron,

 

There are many parts of the Anderson reference of interest. Of historical
interest the cobs, like oat hulls, were hydrolyzed  to extract furfural. The
residue was carbon rich material that made a very good fuel. It was a short
step from there to activated carbon. The last of the furfural production in
Iowa was in about 2004. Today the furfural production is all in China. So we
don't have an easy carbon byproduct from extracting chemicals from these
residues. The cobs go to ethanol plants and the oat hulls go into a
university boiler where they are co-fired with coal. 

 

Tom 

 

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Ronal W. Larson
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2013 6:27 PM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] corn cobs and char

 

AD, Art,  Tom  (not shown below) and list

 

   Apologies for no-content message just sent by me.  I don't know how it
got away  (still learning new Apple language)

 

   Thanks again to all for more data.  I am getting less certain with time
on the availability of corn cobs.  Must have a lot of regional variability.
Also we need to note there have been a lot of kernels burnt in the US
instead of pellets - not very likely in Costa Rica or India.   So you would
think cobs might have a place as well somewhere besides India.

 

   To AD>  Are there places in India where cobs might be the "only" fuel
throughout a year?  Anything on market value?

 

  To Art>   AD.'s  question to you is important.  It wouldn't seem that the
pigs and chickens would be getting much nutrition from a cob.  Might char
from them be more important to a farmer in Costa Rico?

 

   To Tom>  Thanks for the lead on the Anderson's book.  My library and
google say no copies anywhere in Colorado.  If you or anyone think there is
something important on char from cobs, I'll try harder on an interlibrary
loan.

 

Ron

 

 

On Aug 15, 2013, at 6:39 PM, Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com> wrote:





Dear Art Donelly,

are the cobs fed to pigs whole cobs with the grain or the shanks left after
removing the grain? Here in India we regularly use the empty shanks as fuel.

Yours

A.D.Karve

On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 2:53 AM, Art Donnelly <art.donnelly at seachar.org>
wrote:



Hi all,

It has been a busy few days, so forgive me if someone has already made these
observations. We have used corn cobs with great success in the TLUD style
Estufa Finca stoves. I love showing people our little tiny corn cob
charcoal. We have also successfully made a lot of biochar from dried corn
stover in our version of the 55-gal drum TLUd style J-Ros. MIT has also
promoted both of these approaches in it's Field-to-fuel program in Haiti and
Nicaragua.

But there is a problem with thinking of corn cobs as a stove fuel: most cobs
are used as animal feed (pigs/chickens) and needed for it. Applying a
hierarchy or best use: the pigs win! However pelleted or briquetted corn
stover mixed with paper waste seems like it has a lot of potential. 

Art

 

On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 12:00 PM, <stoves-request at lists.bioenergylists.org>
wrote:



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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: corn cobs and char? (Ronal W. Larson)
   2. Re: LPG subsidy to be removed in Ecuador (Andrew C. Parker)
   3. Re: corn cobs and char? (revjcsd at juno.com)
   4. Re: corn cobs and char? (Crispin Pemberton-Pigott)
   5. Re: corn cobs and char? (revjcsd at juno.com)
   6. Re: corn cobs and char? (Ronal W. Larson)
   7. Re: LPG subsidy to be removed in Ecuador (Anand Karve)
   8. Re: LPG subsidy to be removed in Ecuador (Andrew C. Parker)


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

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 13:08:04 -0600
From: "Ronal W. Larson" <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
 

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