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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Dear Christa and Paul and Others contributing to this interesting angle<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>As you may know I have been making oil presses for quite a long time and looking at quite a lot of seed cake (‘torteau’ in some countries). Cake left alone, when there is a reasonable amount of oil in it, hardens as the oil degrades and as the whole thing dries. Old oil usually it makes a blackish hard, dry scale on things. In other words it is a binder but a slow one. Marula kernel cake is way too valuable as a food to burn (presuming you have taken care not to allow <i>fusareum roseum</i> to grow on the seeds). Sunflower cake is probably like the jatropha cake.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If you have a low(er) pressure press it leaves a fair bit of oil in the cake: often 15%, maybe 10% from a screw press, only 6% after solvent extraction. The higher numbers are enough to become a binder, not a problem, if the post-processing is patient and correct. Obviously the fibressness (fibrosity?) of the mix and the amount of pure powder and all sorts of physical properties affects the result, but in principle, it is not necessarily a negative to have an oily and powdery cake.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Perhaps it needs to be compressed gently and heated to accelerate the breakdown of something, to dry it, to get something to grip. It may need an additive to be the binding fibre, or a chemical that accelerates the conversion of an oil to a dry hard goo holding things together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>It sounds like the best way to burn the J-cake (J-torteau = Jorteau!) is to try combustion systems that do not try to pull air through the fuel. An angled downdraft would to (using a wire grate) as would some side draft approaches though they would require periodic feeding. My bet is downdraft will be best because it removes the ash and provides new fuel at a known/fixed place. In that case there would be no air pulled through the fuel – i.e. it is loaded into a sealed hopper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If it is sticky/oily, the hopper should taper slightly larger towards the bottom.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If there is an approximate equivalent that is perhaps more accessible we could all try versions of ‘cake burners’ that can deal with, say, rolled oats and crushed wood pellets and sawdust – that sort of thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>