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

kgharris kgharris at sonic.net
Sat Oct 22 14:57:45 CDT 2016


Rebecca and Tony,

Retorts are containers for making char which contain fuel while it is heated, keeping the air out, and releasing the wood gas from pyrolysis.  A tin can with a lid with a small hole in it will do.  They char saw dust nicely if the center can get hot enough.  The retort can be placed inside any adequate fire.  For a TLUD it is placed in the fuel reactor chamber where it is in contact with the fuel.  I raise it off the grate 1cm which helps to complete the charring of the saw dust.  I don't know how large it can be in relation to the size of the fuel chamber.  The can I use is about one sixth the cross sectional area of the fuel chamber.  The escaping gas adds to the secondary flame.  This method requires seperate fuel and the amount of saw dust char produced is limited to the size of the retort.

The Whirly Pinay probably is not able to burn loose saw dust as a fuel, but does have room for a retort, either within the fuel or above it in that large burner (the hole(s) would be at the bottom of the retort if in the burner).  To make a test retort, open a can with a safety can opener.  This will leave a rim on both the lid and the can and the lid will fit firmly back onto the can.  Remove the food and make a small hole in the lid or can to let the wood gas out.  Put saw dust in the can, put the lid on it, and put it in the fire.  After the fire, if the can is still smoking the saw dust is not finished charing and needs more heating.  

I searched the internet for saw dust burning stoves and found several.  Most use the central chimney method which burns the saw dust to ash, no char.  It would probably be fairly easy for you to adapt the Whirly Pinay to use this method, with one central hole instead of the grate.  A stove called the Anila stove made char from the saw dust, so if char briquettes are what you want, then that is the only one I have found so far.  It is actually a retort stove with the retort surrounding the fire, instead of the retort being inside the fire.

As for the rice husk TLUD, check http://bioenergylists.org/stovesdoc/Belonio/Belonio_gasifier.pdf, pages 13,26, 45 and 102 being of special interest for using saw dust as a fuel.  I do not know at this time how the rice husk TLUD could be adapted for saw dust, but it seems possible.  The document also mentions the desire to develop a natural draft rice husk TLUD.  It seems to me that a rapid mixing combustor coupled with the sunken pot arrangment with a chimney (like the one Dr. Larry Winiarsky designed for an Aprovecho stove) might generate enough draft to get the primary air through the rice husks.  This might make a natural draft rice husk TLUD possible.

My best to all,

Kirk H.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tony Vovers 
  To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 
  Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2016 9:34 AM
  Subject: Re: [Stoves] Charcoal from waste - home cooking or other markets? (Re: Crispin, Anand Karve)


  Kirk - I am quite interested to find out some more about your idea of a retort with TLUD. 
  In Bali here there is a bamboo factory which is burning off about 5m^3 of sawdust every 2-3 days.
  Maybe not going to set the world on fire with the volume but a shame to see it going up in unused smoke.
  Attempts to use the sawdust directly in institutional cookstoves have not been too successful. The cooks keep switching back to wood.
  We were starting to look at pelletizing machines (pellet mill) but there is not a lot of interest to invest unless the value can be proven and the volume is not huge.


  This has been an amazingly active thread which demonstrates the maze and complexity of the real world requirements.
  Unfortunately I couldn't cook on a 30m pyrolizing tower with a fluidized bed.... but it would be lovely to see one in action!


  Could you describe a little better how or where you would construct the retort while still cooking? I have had some contact with Prime stoves but so far not actually seen one.


  Many thanks 








  Tony Vovers
  +1 281 7381000 (VOIP)
  +62 (813) 3888 9062 (HP)


  On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 5:10 AM, kgharris <kgharris at sonic.net> wrote:

    Rebecca,

    This could make a good char buy back program.  Saw dust could be charred in small retorts in cook stoves.  The gas from the saw dust would add to the cook fire and the char bought and brought to a central briquette making facility, or used for other products (char is versatile).  I don't know if the Eco Kalan is able to receive a retort, perhaps it would need a TLUD.  There are two excellent TLUDs that I know of in that part of the world, the Champion and the Prime (though the Prime has a central post that might interfere).  There are probably more.  Another possibility is the new rice husk stoves.  Saw dust is similar in texture so perhaps saw dust would work in a forced air rice hull stove with whatever adapting is needed.  This would allow loose, unprocessed (except for drying) saw dust to be a fuel source.  Servals recent success could be a model buy back program to look at.

    Kirk
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Rebecca A. Vermeer 
      To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves 
      Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 8:37 AM
      Subject: Re: [Stoves] Charcoal from waste - home cooking or other markets? (Re: Crispin, Anand Karve)


      Dear Chris, Crispin,

      Do you know of a successful project where wood sawdust is converted to charcoal and the charcoal processed into briquettes?
      Regards,

      Rebecca Vermeer



--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      From: "Crispin Pemberton-Pigott" <crispinpigott at outlook.com>
      To: "stoves lists.bioenergylists.org" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
      Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 4:12:52 AM
      Subject: Re: [Stoves] Charcoal from waste - home cooking or other markets? (Re: Crispin, Anand Karve)




      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, 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, 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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