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

Thu Oct 13 03:17:21 CDT 2016

A detailed description is available here; www.nariphaltan.org/gasbook.pdf

Cheers.

Anil

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

On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 1:10 PM, Ken Boak <ken.boak at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Dr Karve
>
> Here was my reply  - you may have missed it
>
>
> *Dear Dr. A.D. Karve & list*
>
> *"Charcoal gas"  was slightly poor terminology on my part.  It will be a
> mix of CO, H2, N2  with a little CO2 and traces of CH4.*
>
> *There is the water gas reaction of H20 + C  to CO and 2H2  and the
> reduction of CO2 into 2CO  when it comes into contact with orange hot
> carbon.*
>
>
> Furthermore the gas produced will be formed by the water gas reaction and
> the water shift reaction
>
>
> Water Gas - from Wikipedia
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_gas
>
> Water Shift Reactiion
>
> CO + H2O ⇌ CO2 + H2
>
> If the charcoal is fairly pure carbon,  resulting from fully charred wood
> and thus contains only traces of volatiles or tars, then the resulting gas
> will also be free from these compounds.  So it will be a cleaner gas from
> the outset.
>
> This makes it all the more attractive for using for  running IC engines -
> as the risk of valve gear damage by tarry residues is minimal.
>
>
> Ken
>
>
>
> On 13 October 2016 at 04:31, Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Stovers,
>> I had raised a query a few days ago about the nature of charcoal gas, but
>> got no reply from the person to whom the query was addressed. I wanted to
>> know if the charcoal gas was water gas (CO + H2) or if it was produced by
>> uncharred organic matter left in the charcoal and thus resembled wood gas.
>> Yours
>> A.D.Karve
>>
>> ***
>> Dr. A.D. Karve
>>
>> Chairman, Samuchit Enviro Tech Pvt Ltd (www.samuchit.com)
>>
>> Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 4:42 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
>> crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Dear Chris
>>>
>>> Always good to hear from you. The bamboo waste things sounds highly
>>> replicable in many areas.
>>>
>>> I will report separately on the experiments with biochar being made at
>>> the CAU lab in Beijing, which is on an experimental farm. They have many
>>> sources for the char and are looking into how it affects plant growth.
>>>
>>> One of the source materials is sewage which contains plenty of carbon.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Crispin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Charcoal from waste",
>>> i can report from 3 interesting projects in East Africa and Southern
>>> Africa  transforming waste to charcoal:
>>>
>>>
>>> 1) A project in the East of Kenya near Lake Victoria is transforming
>>> bagasse from sugarcane can into charcoal. They are using an "adam-retort"
>>> kiln for the carbonization of the bio-waste. About 100kg  to120kg (dry
>>> weight) of bagasse fit into the wood chamber of about 2,5 (?)m³.
>>>
>>> About 30kg of charcoal are harvested. Efficiency is about 30% (burnt
>>> waste fuel in fire box not counted). The charcoal is shaped into
>>> briquettes, but I have not details about it.
>>>
>>>
>>> *mark.lung at eco2librium.com <mark.lung at eco2librium.com>,
>>> <http://www.eco2librum.net,,> http://www.eco2librium.net/
>>> <http://www.eco2librium.net/> *
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2) Another interesting project is done in Kenya near Naivsha.
>>> I cite from their homepage: "In urbanizing communities we install modern
>>> container-based toilets in people's homes for free and charge a small
>>> monthly fee to service them. Then, instead of dumping the waste, we
>>> transform it into a clean burning alternative to charcoal. Our dependable,
>>> user-focused, and vertically integrated sanitation services address the
>>> full sanitation value chain and allow families living in urbanizing
>>> communities throughout East Africa to live a modern and healthy life.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As far as i understood the "pupe" is used as a binder to make charcoal
>>> briquettes. The charcoal comes from twigs, roots and leaves which is a left
>>> over from nearby flower farms. The twigs and leaves are carbonized in an
>>> "adam-retort" kiln. Unfortunately i don't have any further details.
>>>
>>>  Catherine Berner | Technical Lead  catherine at sanivation.com
>>> www.sanivation.com |
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 3) In *Malawi / Zimbabwe* a project is using bamboo left overs for
>>> carbonization. I am not sure if the bamboo-char is used itself or it is
>>> compacted into briquettes. What's interesting is that they made essays with
>>> an industrial steel retort and a brick built "adam-retort" kiln. The
>>> industrial steel retort has less volume and its costs including transport *300%
>>> more* that the brick built kiln
>>> and they prefer the brick built kiln.
>>>
>>> (citation. "...The metal retort  stores approx. 330kg of bamboo (adam:
>>> dry or wet ??) and yields about 80kg – 100kg charcoal but uses almost as
>>> much firewood as the brick retort so efficiency conversion rate is low.
>>> .."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On the brick kiln i got the following information, i assume the wood
>>> chamber has a volume of about 3m³ :
>>> " ..It is very successful.  The community group built it entirely
>>> themselves on provision of the materials.  The recovery rate is *very
>>> high* – approx. 800kg bamboo (adam: dry or wet ??) giving *250kg
>>> charcoal* and using around 100kg firewood or less.   (adam: 800kg -->
>>> 250kg, folllows 100kg --> 31kg)..".
>>>
>>> louise.bleach at googlemail.com,
>>>
>>> http://bio-innovation.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Dr. Chris ADAM
>>> biocoal.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original-Nachricht-----
>>>
>>> Betreff: [Stoves] Charcoal from waste - home cooking or other markets?
>>> (Re: Crispin, Anand Karve)
>>>
>>> Datum: 2016-10-04T16:43:48+0200
>>>
>>> Von: "Nikhil Desai" <pienergy2008 at gmail.com>
>>>
>>> An: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <
>>> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Moderator: I changed the subject line. This is in response to Crispin's
>>> comment about Anand Karve's work.
>>> ---------------
>>>
>>> Crispin: "That is what is so inspiring about AD Karve?s work on
>>> charring waste biomass to produce a high quality fuel. He even produced
>>> the extruder and the Sarai stove to go with it. That is a museum
>>> quality piece of work - to be studied... "
>>>
>>> I take your word for it, but I also had this suspicion a few years ago
>>> that what Anand Karve was proposing in terms of converting waste biomass
>>> for charcoal was worth more attention, not primarily as a fuel choice issue
>>> but as a waste management issue. In dry regions such as much of India, leaf
>>> and tree waste along with other open biomass waste is a major problem in
>>> municipal waste management. Why, just driving by Gandhinagar - the capital
>>> of Gujarat state where I lived - a few months ago I saw huge piles of leaf
>>> waste in numerous parks that have been created by the state government to
>>> make the city "green". All those leaves will be burned in the open,
>>> contributing to air pollution (not reported in peer-reviewed literature so
>>> it must not exist) that damages biota health here and now. On the other
>>> hand, such burning will release organic aerosols that supposedly cool the
>>> atmosphere, so it is most definitely "green" for the "global environment"
>>> advocates.
>>>
>>> Open organic waste - including leaves, tree debris, food waste - is a
>>> huge headache for local governments. On the other hand, urban trees have
>>> multiple benefits including air filtering
>>> <https://www.accessscience.com/content/urban-tree-leaves-remove-fine-particulate-air-pollution/BR0116141>,
>>> favorable changes in ambient temperatures (thus impacting building energy
>>> demand; I did some work for Cinncinnati Gas and Electric climate options
>>> 20+ years ago), and I also happen to like urban forestry, gardening, food
>>> production (if land, water, and air quality so permit).
>>>
>>> A new paradigm of urban/peri-urban biomass production, utilization, and
>>> waste management needs to emerge, and energy analysts have much to offer.
>>>
>>> Unless they leave the field to WHO and EPA.
>>>
>>> The question is, do Indian customers care to advance to cleaner charcoal
>>> or convenient LPG?
>>>
>>> As I mentioned in the previous post, the commercial potential may not
>>> lie in household cooking but in water heating (peri-urban, rural) and
>>> commercial/institutional cooking and heating (water/space).
>>>
>>> ****
>>>
>>> Crispin: "But he is promoting charcoal consumption -  very offensive to
>>> some. Shall we forgive him too? :)"
>>>
>>> Asking forgiveness from sinners of cooked science? You must be joking,
>>> Mr. Pemberton-Pigott.
>>>
>>> I note your emoticon, but this is no laughing matter. I think it's time
>>> to stop blaming direct use of solid fuels for presumed envionmental ills.
>>>
>>> It's the process that matters. Converting primary solid fuels into an
>>> energy service can be "dirty process" or "clean (or cleaner) process."
>>>
>>> Extending Kirk Smith et al (AREE 2000 on India) to all processes of
>>> solid fuel transformation, not just final combustion, and counting all
>>> emissions, could well show that investments at all steps of the fuel cycle
>>> can deliver small-scale direct use of solid fuels at a lower emission rates
>>> than the "traditional" processes (unprocessed solid fuels with relatively
>>> uncontrolled combustion and no emissions capture or ventilation).
>>>
>>> I will send you and Ron an e-mail about solid fuels and "dirty fuels";
>>> you decide if it would add rancor or value to this List. I too prefer gas,
>>> electricity, and solar (thermal or soon enough, induction cooking via PV).
>>> There are markets for those. But until the 3 billion people we bleed our
>>> hearts and research funds on get to that nirvana, reducing the PICs and the
>>> drudgery of cooking should be the prime goals of research on solid fuels
>>> use. Banning solid fuels should be limited to some areas and some users.
>>>
>>> Nikhil
>>> 
>>>
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>>>
>>
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