[Stoves] Char from Corn cobs ??

[Christa Roth (bioenergylist)]

Ron, 

not sure where you have seen corn COBS being left in the field? Corn stover, yes? But cobs? Maybe on larger/commercial farms with mechanised shelling right on the field as the maize is harvested? 

With smallholders in Africa (which is the majority of farmers) where harvesting is done by hand, so far I have only seen the cobs being taken to the homes where the maize grain gets taken off, either directly after harvest (where then a relatively larger amount of cobs would be available) or when the grain is stored while on the cob, only before milling the maize (meaning that per household you hardly get more cobs in one month than what corresponds to the volume of one 50-kg-bag of shelled maize grain.

I do agree that they are perfect in size and shape for gasifier stoves, like large natural pellets. I have been scouting for opportunities for sufficient amounts of maize cobs in one place to justify the introduction of char-making cookstoves but apart from commercial farming wasn’t successful in the places I usually work in like rural Malawi. There people use the corn cobs either as animal/chicken feed or burn them directly as supplemental fuel in their woodfires. I haven't seen unused or wasted corn cobs yet on smallholder levels.

Christa
stoves at foodandfuel.info



Am 21.01.2020 um 02:09 schrieb Ronal Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>:

List:  

	Kevin McLean and I have been supporting some research in Uganda on making char from corn cobs.  They seem perfect to me - the right costs, shape, and size.  Mostly left in the field, but would be much more valuable if converted to both energy and char (the latter to go back to the field).  

	Anyone know of any place where this is now happening - in stoves (TLUD or other)?

	This is somewhat similar to using rice husks, which is happening a lot.  Besides corn cobs, what other crop residues should be used for combined cooking and char-making?   

Ron


	
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