[Stoves] Small Scale Charcoal/Ash Screening

Tue Jan 2 06:11:01 CST 2018

Dear Ray

You can use the ashes to make something called “Nigerian Soap”. The pH of the ash slurry is high, and can be mixed with cooking oil or rendered fat.

This type of soap was spread through West Africa a couple of hundred years ago, starting from training by missionaries in Nigeria – hence the name.

It is available at major markets in, for example, Accra as one of the five types of soaps made in the informal sector.  As is the case in the olden days, you may have to boil the mixture for a while to get full saponification.

You can boil the mixture first but should remove the liquid from the ash. This used to be done using a wooden bucket sitting on a flat stove. The idea is to get the liquid out and boil it down until an egg will float in it. Once it is that concentrated, it will transform rendered fat into soap quite quickly.

Wear eye protection and gloves. And old clothes.

Regards
Crispin

I use a cone made from expanded metal lath, like used for stucco.  The ashes and char are shoveled out of the wood stove into a large stainless bowl and carried outside via a basement door.  Then I pour in as much water as I can, and stir it up.  Later, I empty the bowl into a five gallon plastic bucket, add more water, stir it up, and pour the thin slurry through the cone.  The ashes and char less than about 1/4" go into the second bucket.  (Repeat if necessary.) After this bucket sits for a day or so, there is clear water on top, which is poured off, leaving the ash/small char which is poured into a 40 gallon plastic barrel out in the yard.  The charcoal is added to a pile in the yard.  It will be dried, screened, and bagged for later use.
I'm looking for an use for these ashes in the barrel.  One idea is to mix some in with Portland Cement, but how much to add?  Another idea is aircrete, where Dawn soap is made into a foam and mixed into concrete.  Perhaps the ashes could be added to the mix and the result could be used as a "cast in place" lightweight insulator.  Any idea if this would work?
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On Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 9:02 AM, <Woodstoves56 at juno.com<mailto:Woodstoves56 at juno.com>> wrote:
I burn wood for heating the house using an EPA certified fireplace insert.   The wood species is mostly ash, and hardwoods.  The burning wood rests on an insulated firebrick bed located in the bottom of the stove.  After the stove has cooled overnight, there is a mix of approximately 2/3 ashes to 1/3 charcoal left.

I found that an easy way to screen the ashes from the charcoal is by using a cylindrical mesh cone.  The mesh material is ¼” galvanized hardware cloth.  The top opening measures 12” in diameter, the length is 24” which tapers to a closed point on the bottom.  The cone can be easily made by drawing a template onto the flat wire mesh, cutting out the pattern, and rolling it into a cone shape.  I used bent steel wire pieces to clip the edges together.

The cone is filled 2/3 with the ash/charcoal mixture.  Using one hand on each side of the cone top, the cone is shaken vertically until all of the ash and charcoal fines fall through the screen.  (Usually takes about 30 seconds)  The remaining screened charcoal  is dumped from the cone into a fireproof sealed charcoal receptacle. (Just in case there are any live coals in the mix).  The charcoal is dry and ready for use.

This simple method works well.  I have yielded several hundred pounds of charcoal per heating season.  The char is good value and smokeless, used for cooking and grilling.   The charcoal pieces are usually 1” or less in size, so a ¼” stainless steel mesh is used as a fire grate inside the charcoal stoves and grills that are used for cooking.

I would be interested to hear how others process their stove “tailings” …..

Jim T.

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Ray  Menke
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