[Stoves] Coconut husks as TLUD fuel

Mangolazi mangolazi at yahoo.com
Sun Dec 4 22:23:31 CST 2016


Hi stovers,

I've been making some big TLUDs to turn farm waste into biochar as well as using the heat for cooking. I'm using oil drums with a chimney made from stacked paint cans; the fuel consists of dried coconut husks (not copra or coconut shells) and chopped coconut fronds. I pack the fuel into the drum as tightly as possible and light it off with diesel-soaked coconut fronds on top.

Has anyone used these items as TLUD fuel for cooking or heating? I find the mixture burns cleanly at first, thanks to the quick and furious burn from the diesel and fronds, but it gets smoky once the only the husks are burning. Most of the fuel consists of semi-dry brown-green husks because it takes a long time for husks to dry down to a uniform dark brown color. I can get some good biochar after a 1.5-hour burn.

My cooking attempts are limited to putting a small pot on the TLUD lid for simmering. It would also be possible to wrap copper tubing around the oil drum as a heat exchanger to heat water. In coastal Malaysia, coconut husks are usually left to very slowly break down into compost; it would be interesting to use it to replace LPG for simmering and as a heat source for small village enterprises.
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