[Stoves] Sequestering carbon -

Mon May 4 20:51:57 CDT 2015

Dear Rolf

The typical binder content of a pillow briquette is enough to bring the
total ash content to 20%. As the ash content of the charcoal is perhaps 7%
it means the ash content of what has been added is about 13%. It could be
something as simple as clay though that would be unusual (but it works).

Others have given you the standard fare regarding the use of cooked flour or
starch. Many countries harvest starch sources for making industrial
products, not foods. 

There is a list here
<http://www.terawet.com/uploads/Starch_sorces___Processing_in_India.pdf> .
Might give you some ideas.

Green bananas might be a good source for many people - all the rejects from
the market, for example. It dries pretty hard. When it is ripe it is 22%
sugar but before that it is starch which is a di-saccharide if I recall
correctly. 

There are two ways to make briquettes: in a container of some kind and using
a rotating, slightly tilted flat pan hopper.

When the flat pan hopper is rotated with material in it (at the right
moisture content) little balls of material start rolling downhill over the
other material. They gain in size and start rolling faster. According to the
tilt and the material, they grow to a size that hops off the container.
Those balls are dried and sold.

It is the same mechanism what is used to make cement on a small scale - 5-8
tons per day.  The tilted hopper sits atop a vertical chimney and the balls
fall into the chimney which has a bottom-lit fire in it. As the mixture
burns cement is pulled out of the bottom.

You want the same thing except the heat will dry the balls. You can leave
out the drying part and just use the ball forming mechanism. It is very
simple - so simple that people try to keep the knowledge to themselves
because it is easy to get into the business just seeing it working once. 

Richard's briquettes are low density and those balls would be similar. The
pressed pillows take far more energy and expensive equipment. The product is
more durable and lights with more difficulty and lasts a long time. We
recommend people cook in a Vesto using only 6 pillow briquettes,

Kingsford pillow briquettes have 6 ingredients, not two. One of them is
powdered anthracite which gives them their low lasting glow. You could
consider adding that in small quantities. It should be a low volatiles coal
and because you want it powdered, you can use duff coal (below 6mm in sieve
size) which is really cheap. North American coals generally have high
sulphur compared with other places so be picky about the source. If you were
in South Africa I would recommend the Transkei Coals which are just South
East of Lesotho. Very dry, very old, hard to light, good for mixing with
char.

In Mongolia there are good products in the Gobi Desert. Ask around. 

There is a Korean company making TLUD stoves that burn holey briquettes with
quite good emissions. CO/CO2 is a steady 3.8% and that is without knowing
really what they are doing so it could be improved. You could consider
looking into that as an alternative to loose pillows. The old machines that
make such briquettes produce 2 at a time every two seconds so 3600 per hour.
There is no reason why a charcoal holey briquette wouldn't work well. 

Turning waste biomass into a high value fuel in a rural area is a great
idea.

Regards

Crispin

-----Original Message-----
From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Energies Naturals C.B.
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2015 06:00
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Sequestering carbon -

Dear Crispin,

you mention pillow briquettes out of char dust. Do you have any direct
experience with how to make them?

is there a technical guideline as for pressure needed and most of all the
ideal aglomeration additive?

I have tried to make them, but it is not easy unless I mix them with
expensive starch or equally expensive ligno sulfonate in quite high
concentrations. 

Thanks for any advice!

Rolf

On Mon, 4 May 2015 02:42:25 -0400

Crispin Pemberton-Pigott < <mailto:crispinpigott at outlook.com>
crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:

> Dear Ad

> 

> I completely agree.  Even if it has high ash, it would have value. The 

> value of bio-char dust is about 2/3 the value of lump charcoal so 

> there is a market for it (making pillow briquettes).

> 

> Thanks

> Crispin

> 

> 

> Dear Crispin,

> if non-rotting leaf litter is a problem, one can char it and convert 

> it into char  briquettes, to be used as fuel.

> Yours

> A.D.Karve

> ***

> Dr. A.D. Karve

> 

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