Have a look at the Chemistry of Maillard reactions between sugars and proteins in clays.
This could be a mechanism that is taking place. Note Light in South Africa makes butenolide that can help germination and nutrient uptake in plants Regards Stephen Joseph On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Marc Pare <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > Does anyone know why folks recommend mixing sugar/molasses with clay when > making rocket stoves? > > I keep running into this advice, but haven't found a satisfying explanation. > Some stories: > > * Jon and Flip mention it in the build instructions of a rocket stove on > their new site. Some friends of mine just tried it in Cameroon, and it seems > to work. They didn't have a supply of sugar, though. So they soaked + > squeezed some bananas instead. > > * In rural Vietnam, a brick kiln engineer explained to me that they lined > the inside of kilns with a traditional refractory material consisting of > clay + rice hull ash + molasses. > > * While talking to some old colleagues, I heard that old moonshine stills in > Georgia used to have a clay + sugar mix to seal pipe connections (very much > word of mouth, could have been inaccurate) > > * Apparently, in construction, you can retard the setting of concrete by > pouring Coca Cola onto it while it's wet. Useful if a truck gets stuck in > traffic when you're halfway through a pour. > > Does anyone know what effect the sugar actually has? Does it just retard the > setting of the clay? Or does it help improve the material properties? (or > does retarding its setting improve material properties when it's eventually > fired?!?) > > Best, > > Marc Paré > Georgia Institute of Technology > http://notwandering.com > > _______________________________________________ > 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/ > > _______________________________________________ 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/
