[Stoves] Coconut husks as TLUD fuel

Paul Anderson psanders at ilstu.edu
Mon Dec 5 09:00:53 CST 2016


Dear Mangolazi,   (and especially all Stovers who live in areas where 
coconuts grow.)
Also sending to the Biochar Listserv because of biochar production 
discussion.

Great to hear of your experiences with coconut husks!!

Many of us (including myself) have tried to use coconut husks as fuel in 
TLUDs (or other stove types).  I believe that you have just reported 
more success than anyone else, but perhaps others can correct me about that.

What you describe is "typical".  But you have allowed the husks to 
smoulder more, giving smoke that does not burn, or burns poorly. AND you 
report that after allowing that to happen, that you have "some good 
biochar" (which I hope can be analyzed someday to confirm your judgement.).

AND you report some minor use of the heat.

Can we assume that your two photos are taken during the early stage 
while there are still fronds or perhaps even diesel fuel being burned?  
I would like to know more about your smokiness.

You have the advantage of living in an area that produces coconuts and 
the husks are plentiful.   Please continue your efforts.   They are very 
important, considering the quantities of husks around the world and the 
need for biochar in the tropics.

Please consider doing some experiments and reporting back about your 
results.

1.  You wrote:
> but it gets smoky once the only the husks are burning.
Please try with a mixture of fronds in with the husks all the way 
through the barrel of fuel.   Do this with known (approximate) 
percentages of fronds (by weight or simply by volume).   Is 20% fronds 
functional?   Maybe 40% fronds?  And confirm that 100% or 80% fronds 
will pyrolyze cleanly (with combustible smoke).  I do not know of anyone 
who has done this.
> Most of the fuel consists of semi-dry brown-green husks
Here you can repeat experiments with husks with various degrees of 
dryness.  If with reasonable success with "mostly dried" or "highly 
dried" or with some amount of "semi-dry brown-green husks", then that is 
further progress.  YOU get to make up whatever classification system 
seems to describe "dryness."   You can even "oven dry" some husks.

Also, when you have determined something useful about dryness, we can 
discuss having a "dryer" device that will use the heat from the TLUD 
barrels to do the drying of the future batches of husks.

Objectives:
A.  Produce biochar
B.  Elimimate (remove or dispose of) piles of discarded husks.
C.  Elimimate (stop) the rotting and off-gassing of methane and CO2 from 
the discarded husks.
D.  Everntually claim carbon credits for the A and C above.
E.  Ultimately find a way to have useful heat while doing A through D above.

I am almost finished (need another week?) with a document about making 
conveniently simple barrel-size TLUDs in a style that I personally 
like.   I will send it to you (Mangolazi) as a separate message.  Soon 
it will be on my website and announced to the Listservs.

We all look forward to more info about your work.   Also please tell us 
about yourself, location, employment, goals, family, etc.

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 12/4/2016 10:23 PM, Mangolazi wrote:
> 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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