[Stoves] Fly ash cement, Curiosity.

T Hastings mrthomhastings at gmail.com
Sun Feb 8 04:19:04 CST 2015


Hi Michael, Crispin and all the list members,

Rather than answering or responding to all the questions and notes
raised on this topic I will try and share with you some of my
experience on Fly ash for stoves.

What I believe Michael has read about and discussed with Zeobond is
Fly ash based geopolymer. These are cement like materials made by
mixing Coal fired power station waste (fly ash) with an alkali
activator. The theory is that the alkali dissolves at least a portion
of the fly ash which is mostly aluminium and silicon. These ions
recombine to former a polymer or chain like structure utilising the
alkali cation to balance the charge of the aluminium atom.

Several companies are developing it as a low CO2 replacement for OPC
(Ordinary Portland Cement) They mix the binder with regular aggregates
to make a OPC substitute.

In Australia, Zeobond have used a fly ash material to make footpaths
and some precast past. The mixing plant they refer to is a cement
batching plant...its big.
Another company in Queensland, Wagners have made very large precast
beams for a government building and are or will be making a airport
runway from their Earth Friendly Concrete.

You can look Wagners up here http://www.wagner.com.au/capabilities/efc/

In South Africa, geopolymer is also making inroads
For example  0% cement concrete - M&R geopolymer concrete a South
African first!!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wArEbfC91m0

My own work at Unity Stove is similar but different. For these
companies to be successful they have to produce a product that is
comparable in price and performance to bulk portland cement type
concrete for building works. I am really not how sure their materials
will work in furnace lining type applications like the inside of solid
fuel stoves.  The KSIAL material developed by Unity Stove is more
expensive to manufacture as it uses a far greater portion of activator
to try and achieve more dissolution of the aluminium and silica
sources. We also use different aluminium and silica sources ( due in
part to fly ash coming in tanker truck loads only) Also to avoid legal
issues KSIAL is based on old patents....yes geopolymers having been
around long enough for patents to expire. Like their materials, KSIAL
it not a DIY just add water product like portland cement so it very
hard to bag some up and hope that an experimenter follows the
instructions to mix and cure correctly.

I am sure it a type of stove material that some of the well funded
organisations working in this field will pick up and run with one day.
As I have been promoting, geopolymer materials such as KSIAL will
allow corrosion resistant stoves to be produced in small workshops
using readily available materials. Stoves can be repaired and or
crushed and recycled to make new stoves. It is compatible with
insulating aggregates such as perlite, scoria and wood ash and can
even be foamed to make a stove liner, pot support and insulation in
one piece. Its low thermal conductivity means the surface may get hot
but will not instantly burn skin in the way a metal stove can.

Anyway Michael, you are definitely on the right track with Fly Ash
cements and I would just love to pop over to the Marshall Islands with
a 20' container of materials and everything needed to start a mini
factory and start making stoves with you.

Regards
Thomas Hastings
Unity Stove





Some keywords for further research if you are interested in
researching this type of material further. Be aware though that Prof.
Davidovits does believe the pyramids are constructed from Geoploymer
and has even reconstructed and demonstated how they could have been
built using Nile silt and Natron.

Davidovits Geopolymer alkali activated cement refractory foam
and of course google Unity Stove to see Geopolymer stoves in use.

On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 5:54 PM,  <mtrevor at mail.mh> wrote:
>
>
> From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
> Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2015 3:57 PM
> To: 'Discussion of biomass cooking stoves'
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Fly ash cement, Curiosity.
>
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
> Did he say if it is transportable? Or does it have a very short packaged
> life?
>
>
>
> All you need is to find one of those mixing plants.
>
> Crispin
>
>
>
> If anyone is interested ----I made an inquiry with Zeobond. The E-crete is
> not available in powdered bagged form.
>
> It is a commercial large mix batch plant product.
>
>
>
> Michael
>
> Marshall Islands
>
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