[Stoves] Sunflower Seeds

[Tom Miles]

In my experience with making feed cubes the maximum addition of oil or fats
before you start losing integrity is about 4% by weight. 

Tom Miles 

-----Original Message-----
From: stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:stoves-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Richard Stanley
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 10:23 AM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves; Paul Mushamba
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Sunflower Seeds

Paul et al., Ref sunflower seeds, Interesting observation..
> Just as an aside, am curious; Where were you working and what kind of 
> press were you using? Had a hand in early design efforts up in Arusha 
> Blantyre, and Nairobi but never could get the leverage correct.. It 
> was subsequently greatly improved in Arusha as part of a specialised 
> oil production project in the late 80's (with the introduction of a 
> outwardly tapered cage barrel) and spread all over East Africa and 
> parts of West Africa thereafter...
Oil pressing aside, we also utilized the spent cake  and "foots" of the oil
as a agent for coating just the end of our briquettes in the mid 90'sat  our
little pilot production set up in the industrial area west of Lilongwe,
Malawi. The cake slurry foot material greatly assisted ignition, when used
as a coating for a briquette (I beleive the rate and depth of dipping was
about 1 cm which took about 2 - 5 seconds depending on the blend of biomass
used in the briquette).
We could not create a full solid sunflower oil foot briquette because the
oil in it prevented it from drying. Lots of other experiments followed  with
wax dipping, through a colleague in South Africa but it subsequently told us
that the best veggie oil additive was no additive at all ! . It blocked air
passage thru the briquette and although lit quickly, it actually retarded
the progress of the burn of the biomass. 
(ie., with oil or even wax dipping we could not realise the normal rapid
temp rise (peaking at 800 deg C within the first 5 to 8 minutes). 
This had two major drawbacks for the briquette's use as a fuel: 1) it had
the user  running the risk of far less complete combustion with far less
oxidation of potential pollutants, while leaving the briquette as a cooking
fuel, less convenient for the actual cook.
Anon,
Richard Stanley

On Jan 25, 2007, at 5:12 AM, Paul Mushamba wrote:

> Dear All
>
> William Carr wrote:
>> I bought some sunflower seeds recently to check them out as a fuel 
>> source............> I was wondering if anyone else
> had thought about
>> this.
>
> I have some experience not using sunflower seed itself but rather a 
> by-product of village-level manufacturing process of edible sunflower 
> oil.  It is a kind of slurry. When sunflower seed is crushed using a 
> mechanical oil expeller, the resulting oil can be purified by either 
> of two methods; 1. allowing it to settle in a container over a period 
> of several days so that sediment settles at the bottom and clean oil 
> can be collected from the top , or 2. suspending the container at a 
> height and allowing the oil to pass through a filter bag tied at the 
> end of pipe originating from the bottom of the container.
>
> In iether case, a by-product of the purification process is a slurry 
> which, although still rich in oil cannot be processed any further 
> within the limits of the available technologies. It burns very well 
> when added to the open fire although it tends to burn out rather 
> quickly. I am slo not sure about its kindling properties.
>
> Next steps: Try using in stove designed for use with gel fuel.
>
>
> Best Regards
>
> Paul Mushamba
>
> --- William Carr <jkirk3279 at beanstalk.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> I bought some sunflower seeds recently to check them
>> out as a fuel
>> source.   $13.15 or so per 50# bag.
>>
>>
>> They don't ignite cold at all, but added to a hot
>> fire they have some
>> considerable fuel value.
>>
>>
>> Compared, say,  to sawdust from expanded wood
>> pellets mixed with a
>> little cooking oil, the sunflower seeds produce less
>> of a flare but
>> the heat lasts longer.
>>
>>
>> I have some lawn space behind our business where I
>> could till and
>> plant maybe 50' by 100' of sunflowers as an
>> experiment next year.
>>
>>
>> After harvest,  lop the heads off, throw them in
>> mesh bags and hang
>> until dry.   Then if necessary run the sunflower
>> heads through a
>> cement mixer with some rocks to harvest the seeds.
>>
>> Break up the stalks for starter fuel.   Who knows,
>> they might be as
>> good as corn cobs.
>>
>>
>> I was wondering if anyone else had thought about
>> this.   The
>> sunflower seeds I bought are on the small side, but
>> they go through
>> the auger in our pellet stove fine.
>>
>> I will be looking to see what species has the most
>> oil content, most
>> productive, without having huge seeds that would
>> have to be crushed...
>>
>>
>> I'd like to test soybeans but the local mill won't
>> sell soybeans
>> except in bulk.
>>
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