Paul, As usual sensible solutions are not what we find in practice. The first barbeque charcoal was a byproduct of wood distillation in Henry Ford's plant that made methanol. They made briquettes, called FBC - Ford Barbecue Charcoal - that was sold through their auto stores. When the Germans invented cheap methanol from coal Ford stopped making methanol but his son-in-law (?), Kingsford, kept making the charcoal briquettes.
See Bob Massengale's book, Black Gold: A History of Charcoal in Missouri. You can download it as an ebook for about $4. http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000217062/Black-Gold-A-History -of-Charcoal-in-Missouri.aspx On an industrial scale charcoal is made on a continuous process. The Brazilians and French have developed schemes for recovering the gas from batch kilns to generate heat and power. A Canadian company has developed a charcoal-power system based on chips that is not yet commercial. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Stoves [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Olivier Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 7:16 PM To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves Subject: Re: [Stoves] Why build charcoal making stoves? Short answer! Tom, So in the batch type Missouri kiln, the wood gas is wasted along with a certain amount of propane or natural gas that is added to and burned within the process. Wow, what a waste! Why not chip the wood and place it in a large TLUD batch reactor that would produce charcoal and syngas. The syngas could be used to make ethanol or methanol. The same TLUD reactor could serve as a dryer and heat exchanger. The initial drying of the wood chips can be done quite inexpensively using a compost fleece. Thanks. Paul Olivier On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Tom Miles <[email protected]> wrote: > > Royal Oak hardwood lump charcoal is probably made in the Missouri plants where 80% of the lump charcoal in the US is made. It depends on the particular plant but if it is a batch type Missouri kiln then the gas would be flared with propane or natural gas used as a pilot fuel. Energy is typically not recovered from the batch kilns. Since 2005 emissions from all charcoal kilns have been regulated. One supplier recovers fines from these kilns and sells it as biochar in a compost blend. > > > > When sawdust is converted to charcoal the energy is sometimes recovered in boilers. We had a couple of these (Royal Oak) installations with heat recovery in Oregon until they were bought by Kingsford and eventually closed. The energy was used in an adjacent wood plant. For sawdust it has been more common to use multiple hearth kilns with auxiliary natural gas burners to control temperatures. > > > > Tom > > > > From: Stoves [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Olivier > Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 5:59 PM > > > To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves > Subject: Re: [Stoves] Why build charcoal making stoves? Short answer! > > > > In the production of the charcoal sold at Wallmart, what happens to the syngas? > > Paul > > > > On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 4:39 AM, Lanny Henson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Why build charcoal making stoves? > > Short answer! > > > > Photo of bag of charcoal at Wallmart. > > 8.8 lb for $6.58 USD = 75 cents per pound. > > This is for charcoal that can be used for grilling. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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://stoves.bioenergylists.org/ > > > > > -- > Paul A. Olivier PhD > 26/5 Phu Dong Thien Vuong > Dalat > Vietnam > > Louisiana telephone: 1-337-447-4124 (rings Vietnam) > Mobile: 090-694-1573 (in Vietnam) > Skype address: Xpolivier > http://www.esrla.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://stoves.bioenergylists.org/ > > -- Paul A. Olivier PhD 26/5 Phu Dong Thien Vuong Dalat Vietnam Louisiana telephone: 1-337-447-4124 (rings Vietnam) Mobile: 090-694-1573 (in Vietnam) Skype address: Xpolivier http://www.esrla.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://stoves.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://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
