Legacy Foundation

The use of biomass fibers used as binders of a charcoal matrix --all done at ambient temperatures and at pressures generated by a simple hand press (12 to 15 bars) -and there are many such options– is certainly a viable alternative to boiling up starch or sugar on one end or purchasing the mechanized press and consuming the energy to generate the higher temperature/pressure for lignin melting. I will being the samples to the stoves camp to show what kind of densities can be achieved by infilling a properly processed fiber matrix with such as charcoal fines but I find it puzzling that this alternative now active in 67 nations globally, escapes mention.

Richard Stanley

Air Jordan 1 GS

If you are using stems twigs etc you need to see this comign out not just chips:

Friends of the wet low pressure briquetting process;

We are seeing many who dive into making up briquettes with all kinds of new presses and blends but who lack a good understanding of what it takes to make a good solid briquette. They give up on use of agro residues because of frustration in getting them to compact, and then resort to use of paper.

Paper is a good shortcut but it cuts you out of the richness of diversity and sustainability of the natural biota thats there. Paper is easy to use just soak it for a few days and you have the base for blending in about anything Great BUT.you will then depend upon it for the future, and with the chemicals used in its manufacture, it is not the best material for combustion either.

With these few bits of experience to add I hope to encourage you to moveon to briquetting with natural resources

With the wet low pressure ambient temperature process (WLPATP ?), fibers are used to bind the materials together. Corn Starch Clay, wax, dung and other additives can bind of course but these may add cost and/or are not necessarily good combustibles.For most of us, its all about getting the material (grasses/ straws/ leaves /stalks/ husks /stems etc., to expose their fibers, and to then dissociate these fibers from their natural matrices, then randomly realigning them in the form of, say, matted hair or a really tight birds nest. (fiber length varies depending upon flexibility. from a few mm to a few cm) .

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).

Richard's Charcoal Supplemented Briquettes
Edit Blue cells only C C Pemberton-Pigott Jan 2010

Briquettes
Outside Diameter 100 mm
Height 70 mm
Central hole diameter 35 mm
Volume 0.48 litres

Density of the briquette 0.40 kg/litre
Mass, Dry 0.19 kg

Contents, density assumed to be equal Portion Energy
Leaf/Straw 75% 17.00 MJ/kg

Haiti Briquette Photos
Ben Bryant, Haiti, May 17, 2007

Rice Straw Briquette for Tree Nursery
Rice Straw Briquette for Tree Nursery

Fotos - Capacitacion de Microempresarios Productores de Briquetas Cusco Peru
Richard Stanley, Legacy Foundation, Cusco, Peru, 2000

Equipo de Compactación en la que se elabora las briquetas.
Seleccione la foto para ampliarlo.

Recent Posts to the Fuel Briquetting Discussion
Megan Hill, Richard Stanley, Kari Grady Grossman, Robert Deutsch, David Sawwah, September 4, 2007
David Sawwah, Northwest ThailandDavid Sawwah, Northwest Thailand

From Richard Stanley Legacy Foundation to Steve Amodio in Burkina Faso on Presses December 14, 2006
Subject: response to your report on Burkina Faso...

Richard:Steve,
This is in response to your email sent earlier, below in which several issues are presented.

Steve: We set out to build three pressed I had designed during our initial month of talks. We were grossly inefficient in 
spending, but we produced three presses to try out in three villages.

Richard:The press you designed is clever. Thought I'd share a few other designs with you too.

1) A hinged base with a miniature ladder arrangement, the rungs of which provide a multi position pivot for the lever, from Mozambique Keith and Alberto of the SPARK association outside Maputo: Shown is Alberto with bqs in hand lever leaning against cylinder. with mini ladder welded on ot top end of cylinder. I think it hinges at base to open for briquette release.
Contact: ketoooo@fastmail.fm

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