[Stoves] [Fwd: Analyses of Cherry and Acai seeds (pits) - Seeds as fuel?]

[Thomas Reed]

Dear Gerard:

Thanks so much for your prompt analysis of our cherry pits and acai pits 
at Hazen Research Labs.  These are wonderful fuels for gasification and 
so we have acquired 8 tons of each to use them as standards for 
biomass.  For this reason we need to have an accurate analysis both for 
ourselves and others who may use them in the future. 

While nuts, seeds and pits are not normally considered as a fuel, they 
can be excellent fuels where they occur in quantity.  Mother Nature 
takes particular care to pack nutrients and oils into seeds for the next 
generation.  They are also typically quite dense. 

I have been burning cherry pits in my wood pellet stove this year since 
we have so many.  There are pellet stoves for burning corn, but mine 
doesn't work on corn.  My son and I burned a few kg of Eucalyptus nuts 
last week in his fireplace. 
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I have been keeping track of biomass analyses for the last 30 years and 
so have a considerable experience in examining them.  Your will find a 
bunch of analyses of various biomass potential fuels at my website,

http://www.woodgas.com/proximat.htm     as well as that of the 
University of Vienna
http://www.vt.tuwien.ac.at/biobib/biobib.html

I checked these two sources for analyses of pits and seeds and found an 
energy content of (using 1 Btu/lb = 2.31 kJ/kg)

Species          MJ/kg          BTU/lb
Almonds          19.1            8268
Peach stone    20.8            9004
Pistachio         19.2            8311
Rapeseed        19.3            8354
Walnut               20.2            8744

These values are very similar to those for many other forms of biomass.  
Our "average" for all biomass with a ratio formula of
C H1.4 O0.6      21.1            9134
but this is on a dry, ash free basis, and the analyses above include ash. 
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I looked at the analyses you sent me.  The proximate analyses of the two 
kinds of pits were almost identical.  No surprises there.  Your moisture 
and ash free HHVs were

Species          MJ/kg          BTU/lb
Cherry pits         22.0            9523
Acai pits             17.9            7663

I was not too surprised at the value for the cherry pits.  However, the 
Acai pit analysis is so far below any other biomass analysis I have ever 
seen, that I hope you will go back and check your figures and 
calculations.  The final values will probably be published widely and we 
want to make sure they are correct.  If the Acai pit analysis is 
correct, we will have to look very close at its oil and starch 
composition to determine the cause.

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Thanks again for checking into this...

Yours truly,

Dr. Thomas B. Reed
The Biomass Energy Foundation


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I first looked at the analysis of the cherry pits (from Travis City, MI). 

Gerard H Cunningham wrote:

>Tom:  Reports are attached. - GHC
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: mailman at hazenusa.com [mailto:mailman at hazenusa.com] 
>Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 6:10 AM
>To: CUNNINGHAMGH at hazenusa.com
>Subject: Attached image data.
>
>
>This is image data from the scanner.
>

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