[Stoves] wheat husk pellets

Tue Jun 11 14:22:33 CDT 2013

Michael 

Thanks for the lead. The URL seems to have lapsed. 

Ron 

----- Original Message -----
From: "mtrevor" <mtrevor at ntamar.net> 
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 12:55:29 PM 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

Dear ALL 

For some of Jeff Davis's work try www.puffergas.com 

Michael 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: rongretlarson at comcast.net 
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 6:51 AM 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

Tom cc list 

Tom - thanks for the added info. Most of this note on making balls 

1. I found a nice fairly recent article on balls (and char-making stoves) by Jeff Davis at 
arecop.org/download/Glow 38A.pdf 

could not find an email address for Jeff. Has this journal stopped publication? Sorry if so. 

2.I vaguely remember the "ball" topic, but I was off on other topics back in 2006-2007 when all of the stove archives on this "ball" topc exist. Can you (anyone) fill in on more of this story? Anything commercial going on? Is this the lowest energy form of production? 

3. In trying to follow up on the fireball story, the first video at 
http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/576 
said it didn't exist. Can we maybe get it back? 

Ron 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com> 
To: "Paul Anderson" <psanders at ilstu.edu>, "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 10:14:34 AM 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

Paul, 

Look for their meat grinder. If you have a cake or meal like fuel you can make a wet meal and extrude spaghetti-like pellets that are cut off as you make them. Then dry it. You end up with a dried lump like Jeff Davis’ fireballs – a low density but nicely shaped fuel pellet. Dog food is made the same way. 

We use the technique for making pellets for fiber and seed mixes but there is no reason why you can’t make fuel pellets that way. We have seen this technique used for cooking stoves in small projects in India and China. 

The advantage for a stove fuel is that making a wet meal and drying it is a low energy process. When we used to make ag pellets with binders we probably used about 30-50 kWh/ton. In the 1980s pellet mills were re-designed to make dense fuel pellets that depend on heating the fiber to 90 C in the die to enhance adhesion through hydrogen (paper) bonding and lignin flow. Specific power consumption increased to 75-100 kWh/ton in the pellet mill because yiou are converting electrical energy to heat. Particles need to be dry (<8% MC) and fine (<6 mm) to make a good pellet. Christa has a small, capacity, mill that makes fuel pellets in this way. There are also the Chinese mills with vertical dies that can be used. 

Remember Jeff Davis’ fireballs? He put wet fuel into a cement mixer, rolled it into balls and dried it out. He showed that it made great fuel for a TLUD gasifier. Why not a stove? 

Tom 

From: Paul Anderson [mailto:psanders at ilstu.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 6:20 AM 
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 
Cc: Tom Miles 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

Tom, 

My quick look at Cabela's site did not turn up any pellet or briquette maker. Please provide a link. 

Paul 

Paul S. Anderson, PhD  aka "Dr TLUD" Email: psanders at ilstu.edu Skype: paultlud  Phone: +1-309-452-7072 Website: www.drtlud.com 

On 6/11/2013 7:25 AM, Tom Miles wrote: 
<blockquote>

The world is full of failed densification systems. You don’t have to go all the way to a high density (35 lb/ft3) fuel pellet. Put the crumbled cake through a meat grinder with a large sieve and dry out the pellets. Make’s a great fuel. $1,000 from Cabela’s. It’s a mini version of Richard’s press. There are Chinese versions of course. 

Tom 

From: Stoves [ mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org ] On Behalf Of mtrevor 
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 4:25 AM 
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

I absolutely agree with you right down the line, however I am generally the odd man out. 

The only pelleting machine they had here was in the copra mill for the cake. 

It was phased out years ago Now they just move bulk crumble. Even though you do not approve 

the crumbled cake burned nicely in my XL woodgas stove. 

There is no coir dust as the is no industrial processing of husks. Beside the husks are spread ove an area 

maybe 1/3 of the entire United States 

there is a very small scale briquetting operation based on one of Richard Stanley's 

lever press and scrap paper at the local waste company. Effective processing of biomass waste would be important 

but its limited diffuse distributed nature makes this nearly impossible. 

There are some real challenges involved here. 

Michael N Trevor. 

. 
<blockquote>

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Paul Olivier 

To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 

Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 8:29 PM 

Subject: Re: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

Michael, 

Can you access pellets in the Marshal Islands? 

Do you have coconut dust in the Marshal Islands? 

Coconut dust is in an ideal powder form for pelletizing, 

and it contains a lot of lignin that should serve as a natural binder. 

I would urge funding agencies to get involved in the finance of pellet machines throughout the world. 

Funding agencies should also be investing heavily in biochar research. 

When farmers understand the value of biochar, it will acquire value. 
Its sale will cover the cost of making pellets. 

Once again, fuel preparation is critical. 
Imagine where the coal industry would be without coal preparation. 

There are a lot of bad fuels out there, such as coconut dust, that need to be prepared. 

Paul 

On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 2:44 PM, mtrevor < mtrevor at ntamar.net > wrote: 

Dear Paul 

If you start making this unit please advise. 

Thank you 

Michael N Trevor 

Majuro 

Marshall islands 

. 

n 
<blockquote>

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Paul Olivier 

To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 

Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 6:54 PM 

Subject: Re: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

In my previous email I concluded by saying: 
What's needed above all else, in my opinion, are small, beautiful TLUD's that make use of pellets. Such units could be situated in modern kitchens throughout the world. Once these units are in place, the rest will follow. 

It seems that Home Depot, Wal-mart, Lowes, Ace, Agway and many others large retailers in the USA all carry wood pellets. Why can we not make TLUDs that make use of these pellets as fuel? The only thing that changes is the height of the reactor: it's much less than the height of a reactor that uses undensified biomass. This means that the TLUD is small, lightweight, mobile and much cheaper. 

Here is an example of what I am talking about: 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22013094/150%20Gasifier/Short/DrawingsUltra/001.pdf 
The total height of the reactor is less than 10 inches. 

This reactor holds about 2 kgs of pellets. 

This gives a burn time of about one and a half hours. 

The reactor itself in 304 stainless steel weighs less than 1.5 kgs. 

We've already tested taller TLUDs on rice hull pellets, 

and they emit the same beautiful blue flame as when loose rice hulls are used. 

Another big advantage of pellets is that there is much less particulate matter emissions compared to loose rice hulls. 

Loose rice hulls are dusty, messy, bulky and a real nuisance to store and load. 

In an urban setting it makes no sense to be hauling in loose rice hulls of a bulk density of only 80 kg/m3. 

If we're going to compete with fossil fuel gas, we've must reach a certain level of convenience and ease of use. 

Thanks. 

Paul 

On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 6:11 AM, Paul Olivier < paul.olivier at esrla.com > wrote: 

See comments below. 

On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 7:01 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott < crispinpigott at gmail.com > wrote: 

Dear Paul O 

The reason is economics. 

In may cases transport distances are short, and the economics are quite good, and yet we complacently continue to burn fossil fuels. I lived for over 20 years in West Flanders in Belgium where wheat fields encroached upon densely populated rural areas, and yet everyone merrily burned LPG gas to cook a meal. Later I move to Waxahachie, Texas, a small town near Dallas, and once again, wheat fields were everywhere. Yet no one dreamed of making wheat husk or wheat straw pellets and using them to make syngas to cook a meal. 

<blockquote>

China is showing at the moment that the maximum radius that is viable to transport pellets/briquettes is 150 km. 

China appears to be struggling with a lack of infrastructure in getting pellets to market. How does one explain the economics of shipping coffee husk pellets from Brazil to Holland as we see in this link? http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2007/10/coffee-husks-as/ This is a thoroughly bold undertaking, but does it make sense to transport coffee husk pellets half way around the world to provide fuel for Dutch power stations? Why not make use of these pellets in Brazil? Also, one might argue that the highest and best use of coffee husk pellets would be, not to burn them in huge power stations, but to generate from them a syngas that would replace bottled gas or other forms of fossil fuel gas. The biochar left over from these stoves would then be returned to the soil. 

<blockquote>

$76 a ton is cheap by Canadian standards but far higher than the price of coal per delivered MJ. 
</blockquote>

Not always so. Vietnamese coal coming from the north costs more per delivered MJ than rice hulls pellets. 

In Vietnam there is a huge multi-billion dollar infrastructure that underlies the mining, preparation and transportation of coal. 

This infrastructure does not yet exist for waste biomass pellets. 

<blockquote>

Agri-waste pellets are a nice fuel provided they have been prepared properly. 
</blockquote>

The same applies to coal and all other fossil fuels. 

Coal preparation is a gigantic and complex undertaking. 

<blockquote>

If the value of char is 'always there' it is quite possible the economic equation will change with the introduction of gasifiers, however the same energy production rate will increase the demand for transport and raw husk supply. 
</blockquote>

Yes, you are right. The introduction of pellet gasifiers in a given area will create a demand for pellets, and the demand for pellets will stimulate the construction of the infrastructure needed to meet this demand. 

<blockquote>

You know all this. How about giving us an equation or spreadsheet that includes the whole value chain? 
</blockquote>

<blockquote>

Stovers could plug in their local costs and make a comparison between options. In at least some circumstances the gasification route would be the most viable. 
</blockquote>

Instead of using the word "some". I would prefer to say "many". 

<blockquote>

The UK buys wood pellets from Canada to burn in power stations, but that is subsidized by pensions grannies and the working poor. 
</blockquote>

Once again, why haul pellets from Canada to the UK? Does the UK not have an abundance of agricultural waste? And once again, should we not focus more on producing syngas from pellets and directly using this syngas to cook a meal? Burning pellets to make electricity is surely not the wisest way to proceed, especially if this electricity is used as a source of energy to cook a meal. Why not bypass the power station altogether? 

What's needed above all else, in my opinion, are small, beautiful TLUD's that make use of pellets. Such units could be situated in modern kitchens throughout the world. Once these units are in place, the rest will follow. 

<blockquote>

Regards 
Crispin 
>From BB9900 

-----Original Message----- 
From: Paul Olivier < paul.olivier at esrla.com > 
Sender: "Stoves" < stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org > 
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:19:20 

To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves< stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org > 
Reply-To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 
< stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org > 
Subject: [Stoves] wheat husk pellets 

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-- 
Paul A. Olivier PhD 
26/5 Phu Dong Thien Vuong 
Dalat 
Vietnam 

Louisiana telephone: 1-337-447-4124 (rings Vietnam) 
Mobile: 090-694-1573 (in Vietnam) 
Skype address: Xpolivier 
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-- 
Paul A. Olivier PhD 
26/5 Phu Dong Thien Vuong 
Dalat 
Vietnam 

Louisiana telephone: 1-337-447-4124 (rings Vietnam) 
Mobile: 090-694-1573 (in Vietnam) 
Skype address: Xpolivier 
http://www.esrla.com/ 

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