[Stoves] [Biochar] Ceramic Philosophy: Request for Pyrolysis Biochar Stove Designs

Sat Feb 11 14:23:20 CST 2023

Hi Gabriel

I started my biochar career when I taught Indigenous Australians ceramics,
engineering and manual arts.  They taught me how to make and use biochar.
But the most valuable lesson they taught me was clay and biochar are
synergistic.  The yin and the yang the white and the black.  They use this
combination in medicine, for cooking and in art.  From a
scientific perspective, we have found that pretreating biomass with clay
and or postreating the biochar with clay improves it properties.
 Pretreating with clay helps to increase yields and condenses out organic
compounds on the clay that helps seeds germinate and provides food for
microbes.  We also found that bacteria that can fix carbon and nitrogen
grow at the interface between the carbon matrix and the clay platelets.
Because kaolin clay has a much higher AEC and bentonite clay a higher CEC
than biochars then you increase the nutrient holding capacity.

But pretreating with clay also increases persistence of the biochar.  The
present methodologies don't take this into account.
People should read these article

Wang, F., Zhang, R., Donne, S.W., Beyad, Y., Liu, X., Duan, X., Yang, T.,
Su, P. and Sun, H., 2022. Co-pyrolysis of wood chips and bentonite/kaolin:
Influence of temperatures and minerals on characteristics and carbon
sequestration potential of biochar. *Science of The Total Environment*,
*838*, p.156081.
Rawal, A., Joseph, S.D., Hook, J.M., Chia, C.H., Munroe, P.R., Donne, S.,
Lin, Y., Phelan, D., Mitchell, D.R., Pace, B. and Horvat, J., 2016.
Mineral–biochar composites: molecular structure and porosity. *Environmental
science & technology*, *50*(14), pp.7706-7714.

Rafiq, M.K., Joseph, S.D., Li, F., Bai, Y., Shang, Z., Rawal, A., Hook,
J.M., Munroe, P.R., Donne, S., Taherymoosavi, S. and Mitchell, D.R., 2017.
Pyrolysis of attapulgite clay blended with yak dung enhances pasture growth
and soil health: Characterization and initial field trials. *Science of the
Total Environment*, *607*, pp.184-194.

Reynolds, A., Joseph, S.D., Verheyen, T.V., Chinu, K., Taherymoosavi, S.,
Munroe, P.R., Donne, S., Pace, B., van Zwieten, L., Marjo, C.E. and Thomas,
T., 2018. Effect of clay and iron sulphate on volatile and
water-extractable organic compounds in bamboo biochars. *Journal of
Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis*, *133*, pp.22-29

stephen

On Sun, Feb 12, 2023 at 2:40 AM Gabriel Reed <gabriel at gabrielreed.com>
wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> Just a quick note of deep gratitude and thanks to everyone for this
> discussion and pointing me toward such valuable resources.
>
> I look forward to collaborating with anyone interested. Toward that end, I
> will be bringing a select group of Continental Philosopher's from the
> United States to Colombia in May and we will work with local indigenous
> leaders and clay to further this dialogue.
>
> As a ceramist I study how fire moves through space. While it seems clear
> that any industrial TLUD stoves would benefit from being made of metal, my
> hunch is that there may be some productive sideways education, awareness,
> and perhaps technology on the ceramic side.  I intend on creating a series
> of exploratory biochar producing sculptures in the spirit of Braseros. For
> those of you who have been to the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City,
> these vessels will be familiar.
>
> [image: image.png]
>
> Lastly, as a philosopher, I study the imagination of clay and fire and
> would like to offer a few excellent resources to the group.
>
> 1. Gaston Bachelard, Psychoanalysis of Fire (1938)
> 2. Stephen J. Pyne, Fire: A Brief History - Second Edition (2019)
> 3. Jo Handelsman, A World Without Soil (2021)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Gabriel
>
> *Gabriel Reed*
> cell (816) 808-9158
> www.gabrielreed.com <http://gabrielreed.com/> (coming soon...)
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 9, 2023 at 1:59 AM Ron Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Biochar:  cc Jed
>>
>> I meant this to go to both lists
>>
>> Ron
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> *From: *Ronal Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
>> *Subject: **Re: [Stoves] [Biochar] Ceramic Philosophy: Request for
>> Pyrolysis Biochar Stove Designs*
>> *Date: *February 8, 2023 at 11:56:41 PM MST
>> *To: *"stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>,
>> gabriel at gabrielreed.com
>> *Cc: *Joshua Guinto <jed.building.bridges at gmail.com>
>>
>> Gabriel and List, cc Joshua (Jed)
>>
>> I urge more than the Facebook.  See his website (given at the Facebook
>> site)
>>
>> I should have remembered and recommended Joshua.  In the world of
>> charcoal making cookstoves, if we had to score everyone on artistic
>> capabilities, I’d give Joshua an A+, with the next place person/firm maybe
>> getting a C.
>>
>> I just went looking for proof of this and couldn’t find an example for
>> half an hour.  But see some sites below.  So - Joshua - can you send a
>> couple of other examples, where artistic design was part of your sales
>> strategy.
>>
>> See more below
>>
>>
>> On Feb 8, 2023, at 6:54 PM, Joshua Guinto <jed.building.bridges at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Gabriel
>>
>> I'm interested in what you do for ageoecoloegy and how stoves Will fit
>> into your work.
>>
>> We at Bahay Teknik is doing a lot with clay and we formulate our own
>> recipe to produce firebricks for our rocket stoves.
>>
>> Joshua:  I had forgotten on this.  Gabriel will know that potters have to
>> pay a lot for firebricks in their gas and electric kilns.  Maybe a third
>> (??) of the weight of regular bricks - highly efficient.  I have no idea
>> how to make one, but presumably Joshua would be willing to sell some -
>> maybe even of your own design.  I hope he can expand on the next sentence.
>>
>> We also make variations of recipes for different types of bricks
>> depending upon the required functions.
>>
>> Our rocket.stoves is actually a hybrid of a rocket and a TLUD gasifier.
>> With pili nut shells which we have in abundance in my region, the stove
>> runs on a gasifier mode during the first fuel load and then switch to
>> rocket thereafter. It can run on wood sticks, wood pellets, holey
>> briquettes and pili (or small size nut) shells. Temperature at the fire
>> chamber could go as high as 700 degrees Celsius, thus producing a good
>> quality brochar.
>> We can harvest the biochar with ease by simply dumping the hot char in a
>> pan of water.
>>
>> You may visit our Facebook page Bahay Teknik. Our manager Sandino will be
>> glad to assist you.
>>
>> *[RWL:  I’ve just spent more than an hour wandering around.  Found many
>> things new to me.  Example here is a 1 hour video on biochar:
>>  https://www.facebook.com/bahayteknik/videos/551466433518685
>> <https://www.facebook.com/bahayteknik/videos/551466433518685>*
>> * It is in a native language - as it should be.*
>>
>> * I found a huge file of photos. About 5 (out of at least 500) that
>> showed a bit of his combined engineering and art skills.  Here is an
>> example of the very small number I could find.  I’ll bet he has made
>> hundreds like this - with little repetition.*
>>
>>
>>
>> * I was amazed at the advances seen in pizza ovens.  Maybe 10 different
>> designs.  Some that could be very cheap.*
>>
>> * It is now so late that I have to stop.   Josh - congratulations on
>> having accomplished so much.  It must be very satisfying to be working with
>> a very talented son.  Please talk a little about the likely big difficulty
>> of combining your art talents with a shop focussed on low-cost biochar.*
>>
>> *Ron*
>>
>>
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Jed Guinto
>>
>> On Thu, 9 Feb 2023, 5:54 am Ronal Larson, <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Gabriel and ccs (adding the stoves list (the predecessor “mother” of the
>>> biochar (terra preta) group you started with.  [note different address for
>>> Paul]
>>>
>>> Welcome as a first poster.  We need more potters on this list - as so
>>> many cook stoves are presently being made by potters.
>>>
>>> I write as husband of a potter.  I have tried to make several clay
>>> TLUDs.  I failed.   Cracked. Pretty quickly   But I still think that
>>> char-making can be done in ceramic stoves.
>>> There is some clay being sold with paper as an ingredient that is
>>> claimed to have minimal expansion as heated up (the exhaust gas
>>> temperatures are pretty impressive.  I have never heard of anyone using
>>> such clay.  I haven’t)
>>> The top of a TLUD will get up to cone 022 (dull red) in a minute or so,
>>> while the bottom is still room temperature.  Having the cylinder be
>>> segmented will help, but you also are trying to control air.  Not like
>>> heating up in a kiln.
>>>
>>>
>>> Kevin McLean has had considerable charcoal-making success with unfired
>>> large un-fired clay “bricks."  See his Sun24 website. The firing as a stove
>>> will do some hardening of the clay.  Too early to get lifetime data with
>>> Kevin’s nice low-cost approach.
>>>
>>> I wouldn’t worry too much about Terra Preta.  Very valuable discussions
>>> around 2000-2010 - but no connection to pottery.
>>>  (One exception - I’ve seen some literature that the ancient Amazonians
>>> also obtained a product like that coming from a present day low-temperature
>>> approach called HTC, they using big clay urns)
>>> The sites www.biochar-international.org and www.biochar-us.org will
>>> give some good information.  Especially on webinars - some have been on
>>> stoves.
>>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>>
>>> On Feb 8, 2023, at 12:45 PM, Teel, Wayne <teelws at jmu.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> Gabriel,
>>>
>>> Get in contact with Paul Anderson, , and he will help you from there.
>>> He is a regular and valuable contributor to this list.
>>>
>>> Wayne
>>>
>>> *From:* main at Biochar.groups.io <main at Biochar.groups.io> *On Behalf Of *Gabriel
>>> Reed
>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 8, 2023 12:21 PM
>>> *To:* main at Biochar.groups.io
>>> *Subject:* [Biochar] Ceramic Philosophy: Request for Pyrolysis Biochar
>>> Stove Designs
>>>
>>> *CAUTION: *This email originated from outside of JMU. Do not click
>>> links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the
>>> content is safe.
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Hello All,
>>>
>>> First post in this group.
>>>
>>> I'm a ceramic philosopher doing some research here in Cali, Colombia and
>>> am interested in building pyrolysis stoves for an agroecology project
>>> called Fundcación Yūtopialab. If anyone has resources they can point me to
>>> specifically on the topic of Terra Preta and/or especially stove designs
>>> that would be greatly appreciated!
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Gabriel
>>>
>>>
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