[Stoves] Avocado Peel

[William Carr]

On Jan 1, 2007, at 8:41 AM, Thomas Reed wrote:

> Dear William and All:
>
> In the movie "Oh God" (played by George Burns) God says he made a few
> mistakes, in particular for avacados he says "I made the pits too  
> big."
>
> For eating that is, but for fuel and maybe biodiesel, they should be
> fabulous, probably full of oil.


And on that note...  I saved a couple of Avocado pits.   After 1 day  
wrapped in a paper towel sitting on a table, I checked them.


They had a loose paper-thin husk on them that was starting to peel  
off.   Interesting.   That husk burns like a torch !



I peeled the husk off and learned that the pits are just like  
cashews, they split apart down the middle.


Of course the flesh of the pit was very moist, and cut into 3/16"  
slices was flexible, almost like rubber.


I put the slices in an aluminum pie pan on top of my pellet stove for  
24 hours.


It's warm but not too hot there.   You'd take your hand away  
quickly.    A pan of water set there will evaporate but never boil or  
even steam.

Tonight, I checked the pit slices.   They had shrunk and turned  
brittle, just in 24 hours.

I tossed one in the stove and it burned.   Flames were coming off the  
piece within five seconds or less.

"Six seconds or less"  is my rule for whether kernel corn is dry  
enough to burn in the pellet stove, about 13% moisture content.



So I held another piece in my pliers and tried to burn it with a  
butane lighter.

Five seconds, stop and check.   It smoked a lot and burned in the  
butane flame but the flame went out in a second after I took the  
butane lighter away.

Another five seconds of butane flame, and this time the slice burned  
on it's own for just over ten seconds.



I found this very, um,  'illuminating'.



Does anybody have an figures on how long you'd have to dry a green  
wood chip before it would burn on it's own?


The only downside, BTW, might be using the Avocado pits, not the  
peels.   The pits contain cyanide compounds.   I just wonder what  
happens when that burns.   Is it in the smoke?   Or is it destroyed?



The inspiring thing about this research is that with just a little  
drying time Avocado peels and sectioned pits will give off some  
considerable heat.



Compare that to kernel corn.    The local mill hasn't given me their  
cost figures, but I know they get in kernel corn at 15% or so  
moisture content and then dry it to 13.5%.

In November-December around here you can listen for the sound of the  
grain dryers running all night and see the steam coming off the  
hoppers as you drive by.

Drying kernel corn costs a good bit of money in terms of natural gas  
or propane.

Drying Avocado peels would only require strong sunlight for a few days.

I emailed a major Avocado producer about this subject but I doubt  
they'll be in a rush to reply.

Check Google yourself for the amount of Avocados shipped to this  
country per year.   My mind just can't handle the concept of that  
many metric tonnes...



If we have any list members in New Mexico, Mexico, Arizona, etc,  
perhaps some local research would be helpful.   Any guacamole  
factories around?