Dear Josh
I appreciated this: >The ASTM determination of "volatile matter" for coals really is not a good fit for biochar. It's not really clear what you're measuring when applying that method to biochar, as the prescribed heating (devised originally for coal) alters the char. It is not really good for coal stove either. It is an old method that was possible using simple equipment and the coal people got used to it. The 'moisture' they give is not the moisture content, the fixed carbon is not the carbon content, the hydrogen figure is suspect, and when reporting these elements, they first remove Sulphur from the total mass (!) meaning all of the numbers have to first be corrected for the missing S. If that was not clear, adding up the standard reported % of mass for H2O, C, S, H and O2 gives more than 100% because the S is ignored when the calculation is made, hard as this is to believe, but that is what they do if you do not ask for a non-standard reporting method. There is a method (and several papers) on attempts made to calculate the ultimate analysis from the proximate analysis (which is much cheaper to get). I was impressed at how close they got the results - certainly closer than assuming that biomass is 50% carbon and 5.6% Hydrogen. Regards Crispin
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