[Stoves] Carbonite

[Jeff Davis]

Dear All,


Being a student of the history, art and science of the portable suction
gas generator has provided many insightful moments. One item of interest
is a fuel called Carbonite. My understanding is that Carbonite was
produced from charcoal and the residue from the production of the charcoal
hence tar and other nasty by products.

It was claimed to be efficient because of using most of the products of
charcoal production. If I recall correctly one ton of wood produced 700
pounds of rich Carbonite. I’m sure that the wood was not kiln dried so 20%
MC might be a best-case scenario. So let’s take:
 2000 lbs * .20 = 400 lbs of water
2000 – 400 = 1600 lbs of fibrous
700 / 1600 = 44 % Carbonite by weight

In addition to being a rich fuel it could also be stored under water
because of the tar being impervious to water. Furthermore the tar was also
the binder. The SG was over one !!!!!!!

I can not help but think that this would make a wonderful Fireball, the
sphere needs the least amount of surface energy and has a low angle of
repose matched with Carbonite it should make be a winner.

The portable suction gas generator needs a low ash fuel in order to avoid
slagging but a cook stove doesn’t need to operate at these temperatures.
Because the slagging isn’t a problem I do not see why something like
switchgrass/straw could not be used as the feed stock for the Carbonite.
Although the tar is of a lighter species it would be worth a try. I hope
someday to be able to see if this theory would work.

One day my gasifier did malfunction (rat hole) and produced some
collectable tar. I did soak some paper Fireballs in this tar but never had
the time to see how they would burn in Tom’s TLUD. As a mater of fact I
still have some orange peels from over a years ago that I never had the
time to test. Not to mention two bags of ground rice husks that I need to
make into Fireballs, also two three years ago, but lack the time to do.

I'm not sure of the spelling so when I get home tonight I'll look it up.



Best regards,


Jeff




-- 
Jeff Davis

Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA