[Stoves] SPAM: Re: Charcoal from waste - home cooking or other markets? (Re: Crispin, Anand Karve)

[nari phaltan]

Hi stovers,

It is very wasteful to convert agricultural residues to char in simple
containers. The ensuing pollution and heat transfer makes it very
inefficient. A better way is pyrolysis/gasification that we did long
ago (1995). www.nariphaltan.org/Gasifier.pdf

Cheers.

Anil

On 10/6/16, Ken Boak <ken.boak at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Teddy, Tom, List
>
> Thanks for that very useful link to the Thailand charcoal gasifier site.
>
> My interest lie in a simple low tech charcoal gasifier, and a conversion
> aimed at the single cylinder Lister, Petter and Changfa type diesel engines
> that are very common in India, Asia and Africa.
>
> I'd like to make a "magazine" that holds several briquettes,  like bullets
> in the chambers of a revolver, and so even slightly damp, fresh biomass
> briquettes could go through a drying stage, a pyrolysation stage - and once
> completely converted to charcoal, a gasification stage.
>
> The dryer and pyrolyser are driven from the hot engine exhaust and
> supplemented by burning the tars and volatiles - the pyrolysis gas.
>
> Separating drying and pyrolysation in separate chambers from the
> gasification, means that the volatiles and tars produced in the pyrolysing
> process can be kept completely separate from the gasification - and result
> in a very low tar gas - which is more acceptable and forgiving to the
> engine valve gear.
>
> Initial tests were conducted (spring 2012 at APL) in pyrolysing 3 litres of
> woodchips (0.8kg) directly  with a Lister exhaust.
>
> These tests showed that complete conversion of  to charcoal could be
> achieved within 45 minutes - just by direct action of the hot  Lister
> exhaust through the container holding the chips.
>
> After 20 minutes of such direct heating action, the emerging gas was
> sufficiently rich in hydrocarbons to sustain a flame.
>
> After 45 minutes there was no further smoke, and on examination I was left
> with a fine charcoal similar to biochar - about 20% by volume of the
> original woodchip sample. Whilst this might not appear a good charcoal
> conversion efficiency - half of the charcoal fines were blown out of the
> container by the pulsating Lister exhaust!
>
>
>
>
>
> Ken
>


-- 
Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)
Tambmal, Phaltan-Lonand Road
P.O.Box 44
Phaltan-415523, Maharashtra, India
Ph:91-2166-220945/222842
e-mail:nariphaltan at gmail.com
           nariphaltan at nariphaltan.org

http://www.nariphaltan.org