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From: [email protected] <[email protected]> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <[email protected]> Sent: Sun Aug 05 14:27:55 2012 Subject: Re: [Stoves] material processing for briquettes few tips ontechnique Just a note to briquette length: i was talking about 2 very different briquettes, larger ones we worked on in Malawi in 2003 - 16cm in diameter - and the ones i did more experiments with recently - 10cm in outer diameter. Smaller were much better in burning, also more compact and easier to make. I did found out for the side feed stoves the hole needs to be bit bigger than what people usually make, around 4cm, these are also the ones i suggested the length 5-7cm Greets Rok On Saturday, August 4, 2012, <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 10:32:14 -0700, Richard Stanley wrote: > >>If processed correctly, natural fibers will flex and then tend to interlock >>once blended with other materials in a water slurry. >>One does not achieve this by simple chopping or even direct use of the fiber >>without some form of softening (thru partial decompsition, in a hot humid >>anerobic environment, (under such as a black plastic bag), or as we are >>learning from our Mayan colleagues in Guatemala, use of agricultural lime >>(which is traditionally discarded after its use in hot water to soften and >>de-shell their corn kernals). > > As always I find your posts on briquetting educational. > > Alkalis, lime being calcium hydroxide, dissolve lignin and I expect > this is what the bugs do in retting fibres out of the stem > (simplistically wood rotting fungi can be classified into brown, white > and soft rots, the white rots attack lignin and leave the cellulose, > brown eat the cellulose and soft rots invade all the cells), it's > lignin that hold all the stringy fibres together. So I can see how > lime would separate out the fibres. > > Your observation that the bugs work better in anaerobic conditions > may be that this is what favours a white rot. Flax sheaves where laid > in a water filled ditch to ret. > > I may have missed something in Rok's post: Rok mentions 16cms diameter > briquettes with a 5 cms hole, I take it it is the length he is varying > between 3-12 cms and favouring a length of between 5 and 7cms? > > AJH > > > _______________________________________________ > 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/ > > -- Rok Oblak, MAA Design [email protected] www.holeyroket.com <http://www.holeyroket.com/> Gregorciceva ulica 5 4224 Gorenja vas Slovenia
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