[Stoves] Char from Corn cobs ??

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Carlo

That is exactly the sort of news I was hoping to hear.  Can you please send a link to the thesis.  I will alert other researchers to it.

The use of non-woody biomass as a charcoal briquette feedstock has great potential in Africa. Because the briquettes can be shaped and sized to suit a stove with particular requirements, the combination can achieve high performance and low emissions (HELE).  Generally speaking, briquettes intended for BBQ use are not suited to cooking stoves. Stoves require much smaller fuel particles. As a general rule they should weigh about 1 gram per kW of fire power.  With a stove at a max of 3 kW the fuel particle should weigh about 3g. They start optimizing and see in which direction to go, depending on the performance and typical burning behaviour.

Thanks
Crispin


From: Stoves <stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org> On Behalf Of Carlo Figà Talamanca
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 22:58
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Char from Corn cobs ??

Dear all,
despite the very low density of corncob-char, it has a very high fixed carbon content (around 80% according to our lab analysis and charred in our TLUD large scale kilns at around 800-1,000 C.).

At OTAGO in Cambodia we have produced high compressed corncob char-briquettes, which burn over 3 hours, are very strong (they don't brittle when packaged, handled and burnt) and are second in quality only to our coconut shell char-briquettes (better then the wood charcoal residues briquettes). We have done an entire university thesis on corncob charcoal and char-briquettes with a biology engineering student here in Cambodia.

We currently don't produce corncob char-briquettes because the supply of corncobs is seasonal here in Cambodia and therefore we have opted for more secure (non-seasonal) feedstock such as coconut shells. However, if there were places where the supply is abundant and reliable, corncobs make a great feedstock for char-briquettes according to our experience.

Best,
Carlo

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