[Stoves] [biochar] First report from Phnom Penh

[Kevin]

Dear AD

Very interesting!!

What would you think of an experiment as follows, using 4 reactors:
#1 Reactor: Run as normal
#2 Reactor:: Add biochar as before
Then take a similar weight of biochar, and leach with boiling water, and 
filter to get "biochar leach liquor" and "pure biochar"
#3 Reactor: Add "biochar leach liquor"
#4 Reactor: Add "pure biochar"

Best wishes,

Kevin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anand Karve" <adkarve at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2013 11:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] [biochar] First report from Phnom Penh


> Dear Crispin,
> the biogas plant filled with charcoal accepted three times the normal
> quantity of feedstock and also produced daily three times as much
> biogas. It did this for about three months, after which it suddenly
> stopped producing any biogas. We tried giving it a rest for a view
> weeks, but it did not recover. We reduced the feedstock quantity back
> to 1g per litre, but it did not produce any biogas. Three g per litre
> of digester capacity represent overfeeding under normal circumstances.
> As long as the charcoal in the biogas plant was active, the plant
> could accept the high dose of the feedstock. But at some point of
> time, the charcoal became inactive and without realising it, we kept
> feeding the system with three times the allowable quantity of
> feedstock. I think that the pH of the substrate became acidic, causing
> the biogas production to stop.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
>
> On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 8:27 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
> <crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear AD
>>
>> I too have a question: did the addition of 3g/litre still yield 3kg of 
>> gas
>> per kg of input? That leads to the question, was the gas production rate
>> dropping so you reduced the feed loading from 3 g to 2 g then 1 g, or was
>> the gas production rate dropping?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Crispin
>>
>>
>> Dear Anand,
>> What was the particle size of the char that you added to achieve this
>> effect? Have you tried different sizes?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alex
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> ***
> Dr. A.D. Karve
> Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
>
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