[Stoves] Binder for those who do not have

[George Riegg Gambia]

tom

i have been experimenting with paper/sawdust for a few months now using a
human powered press and a paper soaking then mixing with sawdust process
advocated by a number of members here and projects i found on the web with
very good results.
this process is ok here in the urban area with access to plenty of waste
paper - we are a paper recycling charity. however in the rural areas the
waste paper i am using as a "glue" is scarce so we will be looking for
alternative materials to act as binder. i just was wondering if there is any
databased researched of which plants/biomass is best suited for this purpose
to bind dry "fuel" like rice husks, peanut shells or corn stems without the
need of too much composting.
any botanists here? :)
we are very under-resourced and i hate to duplicate work that has already be
done.

cheers
george
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com>
To: "'George Riegg Gambia'" <icecool at qanet.gm>; "'Discussion of biomass
cooking stoves'" <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 12:53 AM
Subject: RE: [Stoves] Binder for those who do not have


> George,
>
> The legacy approach "pulps" the fiber by composting so that when it dries
> you get what is called paper bonding, or hydrogen boning, which binds the
> fibers together. (Wet two pieces of paper together and try to pull them
> apart after they dry.) You also get a benefit from the limp fibers. Jeff
> Davis gets this with his fireballs and Lanny has also used this effect.
How
> well it works depends on experimenting with a wide variety of locally
> available fuels.
>
> Richard Stanley and others developing briquettes in the field understand
the
> tradeoffs between manual labor and mechanical power. Several years ago
when
> I first met Richard I could see the advantages of his approach but I
thought
> it would be difficult to get people to adopt it. I was clearly wrong.
There
> are opportunities for all kinds of solutions.
>
> Tom
>
>
> >tom
>
> >are you aware if this would also work with a relatively low pressure hand
> >operated briquetter - like the legacy one? most micro projects set up in
> the
> >third world have no capital access to power assisted machinery.
>
> >cheers
> >george
>