Dear Xavier I think you have not soaked the paper in water long enough to turn it into proper pulp.
Strip and rip the paper Soak for 4 days Stir well with a beer-stirring stick (multiple small branches at the end of a stir stick). Then form the briquettes. White paper (Typing Bond) is full of clay. Try 'mechanical' paper which is made of wood fibres mechanically bashed about. Newspaper is a mechanical paper. Regards Crispin ++++ Dear Roger, Hum that's interesting, and that could be the explanation of the failure of my cooking test today : Just out of curiosity, I tried to make briquettes with 80% charcoal dust, 20% paper, and press them by hand. I could make a round shape, but they constantly lose material when they are shaped and when they are transported. Still they can dry, and go in the stove pretty much under the ball shape. It seems like with the heat, they fall into pieces, then to dust. The result: I wasn't able to boil 1 liter of water, the stove was full of charcoal dust, and the fire almost extinguished by itself. I read, heard from the cooks who test the briquettes, and saw by myself that the 80% charcoal dust / 20% paper briquettes were burning for a long time. The cooking is also very clean. But they are almost impossible to light. Would we have, if no high pressure exerted during the production process : - briquettes with a lot of binder : long duration, but energy is radiated over time, so it is difficult to boil water. That is actually what an experienced food vendor told me about my briquettes : good for heating food, not for cooking food. - briquettes with small to no binder : easy to light, makes smoke, but more energy is radiated in a short amount of time. Can fall into pieces and ultimately into dust. Or am I wrong? I guess high pressure solves the problem, and also high temperature by "cooking the briquettes" during production. Cheers, Xavier _______________________________________________ Stoves mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site: http://www.bioenergylists.org/
