Stovers, FYI After having about 30 compost samples in a drying oven go up in flame it looked like it started with a single char sample placed in the corner. I decided to do a little research by asking Hugh McLaughlin. Another question I had for him was why does some biochar samples gain weight in a drying oven set at 105c.
So it seems soon after a char is produced it wants to take up oxygen. If bagged in a sealed container and sent to the lab soon after being made the dry sample will take up oxygen in the oven therefore gaining weight. If a sample is wetted soon after being made the water prevents oxygen from being taken up. Then if it becomes dry it wants oxygen, increases temperature and can catch fire under the right (wrong) conditions. Char is a great insulator so the heat can be trapped and build up. If there is organic materials around it can flame. So before storage better give it time to take up oxygen. Or if wetted do not let it dry out and keep bags of char in single layers. The forced air drying oven was left on overnight and it was in the morning we found all the burned up samples. It was placed against the wall so we are lucky we still have a lab! Regards Frank _______________________________________________ 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/
