[Stoves] Why build charcoal making stoves? Short answer!

Tom Miles tmiles at trmiles.com
Sun May 12 21:45:32 CDT 2013


Paul,

As usual sensible solutions are not what we find in practice. The first
barbeque charcoal was a byproduct of wood distillation in Henry Ford's plant
that made methanol. They made briquettes, called FBC - Ford Barbecue
Charcoal - that was sold through their auto stores. When the Germans
invented cheap methanol from coal Ford stopped making methanol but his
son-in-law (?), Kingsford, kept making the charcoal briquettes. 

See Bob Massengale's book, Black Gold: A History of Charcoal in Missouri.
You can download it as an ebook for about $4. 
http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000217062/Black-Gold-A-History
-of-Charcoal-in-Missouri.aspx
 
On an industrial scale charcoal is made on a continuous process.

The Brazilians and French have developed schemes for recovering the gas from
batch kilns to generate heat and power. A Canadian company has developed a
charcoal-power system based on chips that is not yet commercial. 

Tom  


-----Original Message-----
From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Paul Olivier
Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 7:16 PM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Why build charcoal making stoves? Short answer!

Tom,

So in the batch type Missouri kiln, the wood gas is wasted along with
a certain amount of propane or natural gas that is added to and burned
within the process. Wow, what a waste!

Why not chip the wood and place it in a large TLUD batch reactor that
would produce charcoal and syngas. The syngas could be used to make
ethanol or methanol. The same TLUD reactor could serve as a dryer and
heat exchanger. The initial drying of the wood chips can be done quite
inexpensively using a compost fleece.

Thanks.
Paul Olivier


On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Tom Miles <tmiles at trmiles.com> wrote:
>
> Royal Oak hardwood lump charcoal is probably made in the Missouri plants
where 80% of the lump charcoal in the US is made.  It depends on the
particular plant but if it is a batch type Missouri kiln then the gas would
be flared with propane or natural gas used as a pilot fuel. Energy is
typically not recovered from the batch kilns. Since 2005 emissions from all
charcoal kilns have been regulated. One supplier recovers fines from these
kilns and sells it as biochar in a compost blend.
>
>
>
> When sawdust is converted to charcoal the energy is sometimes recovered in
boilers. We had a couple of these (Royal Oak) installations with heat
recovery in Oregon until they were bought by Kingsford and eventually
closed. The energy was used in an adjacent wood plant. For sawdust it has
been more common to use multiple hearth kilns with auxiliary natural gas
burners to control temperatures.
>
>
>
> Tom
>
>
>
> From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Paul Olivier
> Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 5:59 PM
>
>
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Why build charcoal making stoves? Short answer!
>
>
>
> In the production of the charcoal sold at Wallmart, what happens to the
syngas?
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 4:39 AM, Lanny Henson <lannych at bellsouth.net>
wrote:
>
> Why build charcoal making stoves?
>
> Short answer!
>
>
>
> Photo of bag of charcoal at Wallmart.
>
> 8.8 lb for $6.58 USD = 75 cents per pound.
>
> This is for charcoal that can be used for grilling.
>
>
>
>
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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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>



--
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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