[Stoves] Charcoal & Stoves

[frank]

Dear Stovers,
Just wondered if anyone has tried burning grape seeds?

I burn a lot of stuff at 550 deg. C and grape seeds seem to take the 
longest because it seems to stay at 'char' for a longer period of time. 
Then when finally completed it is a completely white ash.

Frank



Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:

>Dear Andrew
>
>  
>
>>First step is to establish the moisture content of the coconut husk,
>>is it the same as what's called coire?
>>    
>>
>
>It can be rapidly dried because it has a huge surface area per Kg.  Coir I 
>think is technically the fibre which has been taken from husks that are 
>first retted, often in the ocean for a few months, and combed out.  I guess 
>the answer is no.
>
>  
>
>>It strikes me there's never going to be one best route for every
>>waste, in a hot, dry climate Richard's retting and compaction makes a
>>useful fuel from non woody agri waste.
>>    
>>
>
>Agreed.  I am not sure if the husk will ret (rett?) properly.  It might be 
>fibrous enough to stick together on its own under modest pressure.  Perhaps 
>he will comment.
>
>It is however a pretty smokey fuel. It must have a lot of resins that boil 
>off at a low temperature.  If the preheat is 150 degrees or so I found it 
>makes a clean flame but not without preheat, whether that was because of 
>moisture in it (probably not) or because it is volatile well below the flame 
>temperature.
>
>Your comment
>  
>
>>Charring does have a lot of advantages though, the
>>normal criticisms of charcoal is its overall
>>poor conversion and pollution during making plus
>>risks from CO in use.
>>    
>>
>
>gave me pause to consider that perhaps charring something this full of 
>resins is not such a good idea.  There would be big losses during the 
>process and if the gases were not burned it would leave a) nearly no mass of 
>charcoal dust and b) no useful work done.
>
>  
>
>>As we have seen there are a number of ways of making charcoal
>>cleanly and using the waste heat.
>>    
>>
>
>So my present inclination is to suggest that a use for the gas heat should 
>be found first and then the char treated as a waste product of that process, 
>rather than the primary goal.  If indeed the heating value of the gas is 
>high (how do I refer to that?) then perhaps a commercial application like a 
>husk gasifying bakery would be the sort of place to start.  The temperatures 
>involved would be low.  Perhaps I could try this in Chimoio, Mozambique.
>
>Regards
>Crispin 
>
>
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>  
>

-- 
Frank Shields
Soil Control Lab
42 Hangar way
Watsonville, CA  95076
(831) 724-5422 tel
(831) 724-3188 fax
frank at compostlab.com
www.compostlab.com