List, Tom etal:
Thanks for all the inputs. Any others on corn cobs would still be
potentially helpful.
My interest is only in the pyrolysis of such (for biochar production in a
simple stove reasons, of course), and (as noted by many below) their low energy
density makes pyrolysis difficult in TLUD. Re corncobs themselves in the US,
this cite I found helpful:
http://renewables.morris.umn.edu/biomass/documents/Zych-TheViabilityOfCornCobsAsABioenergyFeedstock.pdf
This site
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/alwayssomethingnew/Waste11.pdf
says that globally there are 35 Gt cobs per year - which would make about as
much available as char as total annual fossil emissions. - of 7-8 Gt C (very
few of them now being used for anything). But this sounds way too high, but
35 million tons sounds too low. I have read 15% of a corn plant is in the cob,
and annual production is approaching 1 Gt C. Anyone an expert on corn? In any
case, corn os the world's largest grain crop - in both hectares and tons now, I
believe - so their should be some cooking application for cobs somewhere
This site has a good 2012 paper on corn by Zhang
thescipub.com/pdf/10.3844/ajbbsp.2012.44.53
The reason for asking about cobs is not only that they are pretty widely
available, but they are not a bad size and shape (especially compared to rice
husks, which get a lot of attention in the stove world)
I am looking for reasons to drop the corn cob thread, but not yet found it.
Might as well design for the EPA testing protocol (5 kg water, 45 minute
simmer??, etc). Can anyone supply that (in published form preferably) in
terms of anticipated energy need to the pot.? After which we can figure
30-40% (or different Tiers) stove efficiency. Then we can go to container
sizes, number of fuel switches per test, etc.
The first site above says about 5 GJ/m3 for corncobs (and 12 for wood
pellets), so (forgetting reloading) the fuel volume needs to be about 2.4
times larger than one with pellets that is also a char-producer. But down draft
also allows reloading, not possible with TLUDs. And (maybe) we can avoid a
larger fuel container and achieve lower first cost with BLDD.
Anyone been thinking along these (corn or BLDD) lines?
I have in mind a downdraft design that I think can overcome the space and
several other problems with TLUDs. Nothing much on paper, but I'd be glad to
discuss the BLDD topic with anyone - in an open source context. This is NOT
dependent on corn cobs, but came out of thinking about cobs.
Ron
On Aug 14, 2013, at 8:34 AM, "Tom Miles" <[email protected]> wrote:
> It seems to me that we have seen cobs burned with wood fuels in stoves for
> several years, especially in Latin America.
>
> A challenge with crop residues is that they have enough air in the stalks,
> cobs and stems to barely support combustion so they tend to smolder rather
> than burn. A little wood provides enough of a pilot flame to keep the
> combustible gases ignited.
>
> Tom
>
>
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