AD,
The energy required to make a typical ag residue, hollow core briquette is
almost entirely bound up in labor cost.
•The resources are free and within usually 30 minutes of the production site
and transported by hand. What you collect dry is what comes out int eh form of
a finished briquette once dry with notmroe than 5% losses generally.
• All gathering processing pressing and drying processes use manually operated
devices which are amortised at a few cents (US) a day.
We could assume 60 watts continuous energy output of one average
briquette-maker working as either part of a 20 person or 4 to 6 person or a two
person team on any of the 25 odd types of presses out online and in use,
today.
Generally though, one worker's output including all the collection, processing
materials pressing and drying elements of the production process, will fall
between 15 and 30 kgs of briquette product over a full working day for this
kind of wet, low pressure briquete making process
Taking conservatively, the lower average output of product, thats about
60watts x 8hrs / 15kgs or, 32 watts/kg.
An average of 140 grams each, 7 briquettes per kg.
Two and a half briquettes ( 350 grams) on average, are consummed per person
per day in the average family cooking and sanitation water situation. Thats
about 10 watts per person per day
average ag-residue briquette heat output is between 1 and 2 kw, depending upon
blend stove etc.
Taking again the more conservative figure, that comes out to an output/ input
ratio of 1000/10 or,
100 to 1.
Kind regards,
Richard Stanley
www.legacyfound.org
On Mar 13, 2012, at 6:09 PM, Anand Karve wrote:
Dear Stovers,
Ron Larson raised the point of energy lost while charring agricultural waste in
our portable charring kilns. I have since then been thinking about loss of
energy in making other types of fuels too. Take for instance ethanol. I was
told that the raw product of fermentation has less than 10% ethanol, which is
then repeatedly distilled to bring it to 95 (rectified spirit). This is further
treated to give 100% ethanol. There is also a lot of talk about biomass
pellets. Compressing light biomass into pellets or briquettes also requires a
lot of energy. In the case of charring, the energy required for the process of
charring is provided by the biomass itself that is being charred. By
subtracting the energy of the charcoal from the energy in the original biomass,
one can easily calculate the loss. But in the case of the other two examples,
the energy comes from external sources and it is always treated by the
processor as his best guarded secret. Can anybody throw some light on the
energy loss in making alcohol and biomass briquettes? How much is the net gain
in Energy in these two products?
Yours
A.D.Karve
--
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
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