Rebecca,
Haveing tested briquettes made out of rice husks and sawdust in a gasifier unit (Natural Draft), we experienced the same challenge to ignite and creating the pyrolytic front.
I would suggest you create an upper layer of woodchips, on top of your coconutshells, to create that pyrolytic front more easily and ignite the chips, using woodshaveings or even gras, as a starter.
REMEMBER:
Do not pour liquid materials, like kerosine , directly into the fueling Chamber!
This will distrub the pyrolytic process and reduce the outcome of your charcoal or biochar production.
Good Luck.
Thanks
Otto
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 23:03:35 -0500
From: psanders at ilstu.edu
To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
CC: jonnygms at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Stoves] coconut usage in improved stoves
Rebecca,
To make your oling (coconut shell charcoal), the TLUD technology
is highly appropriate. The density of the shell pieces makes
them slightly difficult to initially light (the same as with
densified wood pellets). But just make a slightly larger and
longer burning "starter fire" to get the initial layer of
pyrolyzing biomass that becomes the pyrolytic front that migrates
slowly down through the column of shell pieces.
How familiar are you with the TLUD technology?
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 6/15/2013 12:48 AM, Rebecca A. Vermeer wrote:
Michael,
I am so pleased to meet an ex copra maker and one who
knows the coconut so well!! So I presume you know very
well the native “tuba” drink from the flower shoot? Do take
a look at my photo album below :
https://plus.google.com/photos/113101643783889350444/albums/5889511496280160113/5889528293743607618?pid=5889528293743607618&oid=113101643783889350444
– you will see the coconut husk (bucong) strung
together; your preferred frond mid ribs (palwa) and the
charcoal from coconut shells (inside sacks and plastic
bags). The charcoal makers are my biggest competitors for
the bucong I need to fire my eco-kalans. Take a close look
at photo #37 -the small pottery to the right which looks
like a vase uses “oling” or coconut shell charcoal; to the
left you will find the big traditional kalans which can use
firewood, “palwa” or “bucong”. The “bucong” is the fuel of
the poorest and the “bingka” or rice cake bakers; the
“palwa” is bought by the not so poor; firewood by the
middleclass; and the “oling “ is bought by the many food
vendors (like “tocinos” – similar to sate in Malaysia or
Indonesia, steamed meat buns, boiling water for disinfecting
spoons & forks....) and households for broiling fish and
meats (sinugba).
Oling is made by burning coconut shellls in a hole in the
ground –a smoky process with a lot of energy going to
waste. Do you know a better way??
Rebecca
From: mtrevor
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013 12:31 PM
To: Discussion
of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: [Stoves] coconut usage in improved
stoves
Dear Rebecca
As an ex copra maker I have
met the coconut and know it well.
I have made copra by the
tons. I know coconut husk
and flower shoot and fronds and shell
Here the husks are
generally burned in 3/4/5 wedge sized pieces.
After the nuts are husked
women haul them
in from the husking areas and sun dry them in
the yards. It is exhausting back breaking work
Husk is a pretty
good mosquito chaser and its low burn
temperature make it very good for cooking
rice.
BUT THE SMOKE!!!!
I would like to
see a retort system running heat to a copra
drier to produce better copra with out bugs
and mold
with coconut shell charcoal
for sale as a by product.
In more
recent years the has been some switch to
your "bucong" of course this mean no more
shell left over.
Splitting
husk with shell in to multiple little wedges
would be
considered a lot of additional work. Coconut
husk it tough stuff. I find slicing off the leaflets
in the field and using the coconut frond mid rib
chopped into segments and split length wise easier. The resulting
stick like pieces
feed into a rocket stove easier. The flower spaths are superb
rocket stove fuel.
Michael
Marshall Islands
----- Original Message -----
From: Rebecca A. Vermeer
To: ; Michael N. Trevor
Cc: Rebecca A. Vermeer
; Jon Anderson
Sent: Saturday, June
15, 2013 6:30 AM
Subject: Re: [Stoves]
: Re: Insulation and stove life
Hello Michael,
Thank you for your suggestions and question. My
comments are as follows:
1. I have considered experimenting with high
silicate ash from the foot of Mt. Canlaon, in
northern part of Negros Oriental. The ash is free
and my partners with the 11th IB of the Philippine
Army in Negros Or. and the Memorial Elementary
School in Canlaon would bring the ash to Dumaguete
City. If this does not work, I’ll follow up on the
TLUD route.
2. Jon & Flip Anderson (Aprovecho
volunteers) have shown me their work with insulating
bricks to form the combustion chamber in Timor
Leste. The insulating bricks are weak, fragile
bricks which require a strong, heavy duty shell
exterior (e.g. cement)to protect the combustion
chamber and to support big cooking pots. I still
think that tiny insulating “clay marbles” between
the heavy duty, all clay, fired kalan and combustion
chamber is the most practical way to pursue. I am
hopeful Rolf and ECOWORXX can find a way to produce
these insulating clay marbles or pebbles cheaply.
3. For those who have not seen a coconut husk –
it is a by-product of COPRA (mature coconut meat)
production. Every 3 months, the coconuts are
harvested, cut into 2 halves, and meat is extracted
and dried to make copra. The husk and inside shell
is dried in roof-covered sheds or storage buildings
to make “bucong” – the fuel we use to fire the
eco-kalans to 900 degrees Celsius. To use the
“bucong” or coconut husk with shell for fuel in a
rocket stove, it is requires chopping the husk with
a machete into narrow wedges (like a cantaloupe) and
a combustion chamber opening as wide and as high
(5.5”x5.5”) as that of the eco-kalan.
Rebecca Vermeer
Eco-Kalan
Project in the Philippines
British
Columbia, Canada
From: mtrevor
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013 1:44 AM
To: Discussion
of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] : Re:
Insulation and stove life
Rebecca
Why not gassify
rice hulls in a TLUD and then use the low
cristobalite "tough" high silicate ash to mix
your insulation.
Perhaps take a lead
fom Aprovecho's play book and fire your liner in
multiple wedge shaped pieces negating the need
to break
things up.
How do to "prepare" your coconut husks for use
in a rocket stove?
Michael N Trevor
Marshall Islands
From: Rebecca A.
Vermeer
To: Paul
Olivier
Cc: Jon Anderson
; stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
Sent: Friday,
June 14, 2013 8:25 PM
Subject: Re:
[Stoves] : Re: Insulation and stove life
Paul,
I currently use wood ash as insulating
material between the kalan and combustion
chamber of the eco-kalan (a rocket stove
using wood, charcoal, coconut husk, shell,
fronds and other parts of the coconut
tree). The eco-kalan uses 75-85% less
firewood and therefore a lot less ash is
produced compared to traditional kalans and
other traditional cookstoves in Negros
Oriental, Philippines. A shortage in
supply of ash is one fact
or which affects sales of eco-kalan. I
have considered making an insulating
material using a 50-50 mix by volume of
rice hull & clay in the form of pellets
or bricks which would be broken to pieces
after firing. I would fire the pellets or
the bricks along with the eco-kalans up to
900 degrees Celsius. Will there be
significant formation of cristobalite under
these conditions? Would handling the fired
pellets or the breaking of the bricks be a
health hazard? Thanks,
Rebecca Vermeer
From:
Paul
Olivier
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013
12:07 AM
To: Rebecca
A. Vermeer
Cc: Jon
Anderson ; stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
; larry
winiarski
Subject: Re: Fw: [Stoves] :
Re: Insulation and stove life
Rebecca,
If we directly burn river hulls, there
should be a lot of cristobalite formed. If
we gasify, this problem should be
minimized, provided channeling does not
occur. Also there might be cristobalite in
the particulate matter in the combustion
gases. With rice hull pellets in a TLUD
we have a lot less channeling, and a lot
less particulate matter. Therefore the
rice hull pellet becomes an attractive
fuel for these and many other reasons.
Thanks.
Paul Olivier
On Jun 14, 2013
1:44 PM, "Rebecca A. Vermeer" <ravermeer at telus.net>
wrote:
Hello Paul,
Larry just told me that the
silica content of rice hull ash
is over 90%. At the ETHOS 2013
Conference, I saw a TURBO stove
developed in the Philippines
which used rice hull for fuel.
Given your comment below
regarding cristobalite “which is
a nasty carcinogen” and severely
hazardous to human health (see
link below), would you recommend
the use of rice hull as a
household fuel for cookstoves?
Rebecca Vermeer
CRISTOBALITE LINK:
http://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/1657.pdf
From:
Paul Olivier
Sent: Wednesday,
June 12, 2013 12:01 AM
To: Discussion
of biomass cooking
stoves
Subject: Re:
[Stoves] : Re: Insulation
and stove life
Paal,
One thing I look for on
my burner is that all
burner holes support a
flame throughout the
process. If channeling
occurs during the
process or if char is
being burned as the
process comes to a
close, then one can see
burner holes that do not
support a flame. This
means that CO2 is being
discharged from the
burner holes, and of
course CO2 does not
burn. When CO2 is
formed, this represents
a big inefficiency,
since combustion takes
place far below the pot.
When this happens the
sides of the reactor can
easily turn red hot and
melt. I do not know how
it is possible to spot
the presence of CO2 if
the top of the reactor
stays open and does not
have a lid with burner
holes.
If one turns up the fan a
bit too high resulting in
channeling, it can happen
that only a few holes
(among a total of 80 in my
case) do not support a
flame. If I turn the fan
down a bit and shake the
reactor, this problem is
immediately corrected.
Also the effect of the
presence of CO2 can be
spotted by the cook in
another way. The
distribution of heat to
the pan is not even.
Also many of the
positive characteristics
of biochar are lost when
biochar is combusted and
is reduced to ash. The
combustion of biomass and
biochar takes place when
channeling occurs, and the
combustion of biochar
takes place if the fan is
not turned off at the end
of the process. Rice hull
ash and rice hill biochar
are not at all the same
thing when it comes to
growing plants. Also
rice hull ash can easily
contain cristobalite,
which is a nasty
carcinogen. Under
ordinary conditions, no
farmer should be
handling this stuff.
Thanks.
Paul
On
Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 1:06
PM, Paal Wendelbo <paaw at online.no>
wrote:
Ron
By end
of flame the
color of the
char is red to
yellow, that
indicate a
temperature of
700 to 800 ˚C
and when there
is no smoke,
complete
combustion has
taken place.
Is that not
good for
biochar?
Regards
Paal W
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