[Stoves] Kinematic Viscosity measure of organic waste water question

[ajheggie at gmail.com]

[Default] On Thu, 7 Feb 2013 10:11:44 -0800,"Frank Shields"
<frank at compostlab.com> wrote:

>I have been asked a few time to determine the kinematic viscosity of the remaining liquid from a methane production solution. 
>
>These are new words for me and looking at equipment there seem to be many ways to determine viscosity and then calculators to convert to kinematic units. 
>
> 
We've had this reply from Corey but it was accompanied by a whole
digest and a large PDF so it was too big for the list, I hope Erin
will be able to find space on the [stoves] website for the
presentation pdf, AJH

 Hello all,
The creation of PAH in biochar is fairly complex. The Illinois Biochar
Group at UIUC is doing a lot of work in this area, I have been
attending their meetings/presentations for over a year now. John Scott
has studied the PAH and phenol formation under different gasification
rates and temperature, air/N2 environment, and post storage
conditions. His presentation is attached which also shows the
equipment he uses, there is not a simple "PAH meter" to answer these
questions sufficiently.  Kurt Spokas is also doing a lot of work on
biochar with the USDA and running an ongoing experiment of biochar in
active plots. So far he has seen all kinds of results for different
chars and different crops: no significant difference in yield,
increased height and decreased germination in lettuce, lower grain
yields, improved poor soil but unaffected good soil, ect. He makes
sure to emphasize that biochar is highly variable and not completely
understood, and that people are trying to make conclusions about it
without actually knowing what it is or all the underlying mechanisms.
Kurt is very straightforward and scientific in his approach, I
recommend looking up some of his work to balance out the "miracle
biochar" claims that are out there. Basically we cannot say if a
certain biochar will be "good" or "bad". It would have to be created
consistently in a well controlled environment and used with a
particular crop in a particular soil with a known response to get a
net positive outcome. 
Kinematic viscosity is the diffussivity of momentum. Wikipedia has
some ways to measure it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscosity#Viscosity_measurement
In school we measured viscosity by dropping spheres of various
material (delrin, hdpe, steel, chrome) through a tall column of the
liquid material. With the surface friction, shape factor, and mass of
sphere known, and the descent time and distance measured, the
viscosity could be calculated. 
- Corey Berman