[Stoves] [biochar] First report from Phnom Penh

[Anand Karve]

Dear Alex,
the charcoal was ordinary wood charoal purchased from the market. The
lump size varied from about 1 cm to 3 cm.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 8:03 AM, Alex English <english at kingston.net> wrote:
> Dear Anand,
> What was the particle size of the char that you added to achieve this
> effect? Have you tried different sizes?
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>
>
> On 21/03/2013 8:53 PM, Anand Karve wrote:
>>
>> Dear Paul, Ron  and others,
>>  I was instrumental in the development of an urban biogas plant, which
>> does not use cattle dung but uses food waste as feedstock. One kg dry weight
>> of starch, sugar, cellulose, protein or any other kind of human food
>> produces about 1 kg biogas. My biogas plant could normally accept only 1gram
>> (dry weight) food waste per litre capacity of digester.  Our experiments in
>> which the biogas digester was filled with charcoal made it possible to
>> increase the quantity of food waste to three grams per litre, with three
>> times as much biogas becoming available from the same plant. This worked for
>> about three months and then the higher efficiency was no longer available.
>> It is a common observation, that a biogas plant works better, if chemical
>> fertilizers are added to the feedstock. I have been thinking about this and
>> it appears to me that it was the minerals in the biochar, that were
>> contributing to this phenomenon. After the organisms in the biogas plant had
>> consumed the minerals, the higher efficiency was no longer available.
>> The same phenomenon might be responsible for the higher yield in fields
>> provided with biochar.
>> Yours
>> A.D.Karve
>> O
>
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)