[Stoves] Traditonal Charcola Making Process / retort / CCS-lite

[Ron Larson]

Bruno et al
    I just sent off a message re KPCU, before seeing yours.  Thanks for sending their site. If you know anything more about their means of production, I hope you can let us know.
    They worried me when I saw on their site:
The calorific value of ordinary wood charcoal is only about 10MJ/KG, thus Kahawa Coal has almost three times more calorific value.
    (I cant see any way this could have been well thought through!)

Ron   



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruno M." <brunoM1 at telenet.be>
To: <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 10:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Traditonal Charcola Making Process / retort / CCS-lite


> Just to ad the ( working) website link to :
> KPCU (Kenyan Planters Coffee Union) in Nairobi         www.kpcu.co.ke/
> 
> and their KAHAWA Coal page:
> 
> www.kpcu.co.ke/services/coal.asp
>         Introducing the KPCU's economical and eco-friendly "KAHAWA COAL":
>         ...
> 
> Grts
> Bruno M.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> At 09:15 4/07/2007, Chris  Adam wrote:
>>Ron Larson schrieb:
>> > Crispin (cc Tom, etal):
>> > I haven't been following as well as I might, but I like that there is a
>> > terra preta (charcoal) aspect to this discussion.
>> > I think you may find that a suitable kiln system  for your stove firing
>> > can be built around the downdraft charcoaling method developed by 
>> Elsen Karstad.
>> >     I visited his site (   www.chardust.com      ) a month ago, 
>> but it would not pop
>> > up today.  Accordingly,  I am copying Elsen as well.  For others new to
>> > this, there are lots of references to his down-draft design in 
>> old archives
>> > of this list - and maybe Tom can cite the best.
>> >
>> >     Briefly, Elsen developed a system where bagasse or wood chips 
>> are spread
>> > out on many grates, and workers keeps enough un-charred material 
>> in place so
>> > that one never sees a red glow. ........................................
> --------
>>NEW:
>>I have seen this method which is called "open pit carbonization " (i
>>guess?) in 1986
>>at KPCU (Kenyan Planters Coffee Union) in Nairobi.
>>It's a very unhealthy and labor intensive and unsatisfying task to spread
>>the coffee husks in the glowing char!
>>However-KPCU is still producing
>>the famous KAHAWA coal briquettes since that time!
>>
>>To avoid this unhealthy procedure for the workers i concepted the CCS-lite,
>>a continuous tower on the base of 3 oil drums welded together. Coffee
>>husks are
>>falling through the chimney into a "hot-zone".
>>This CCS-lit  should be very efficient- because the bio mass gets
>>pre-dryed already
>>in the hot gases- while falling down into the system!
>>You can see a sketch + photos under: www.biocoal.org
>>I guess a prototype could be build for about 5000 Euro.
>>Best
>>Chris Adam
>>--
>>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>adam + partner
>>Appropriate Technology + Industrial Design
>>Bahnhofstrasse 13       82467 Garmisch          G E R M A N Y
>>mobile: +49-(0) 175 528 96 24           Fax:    +49-180 5060 3488 7969
>>www.biocoal.org
>>===================================================
> 
> 
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