Densified Biomass

Fuel, Stoves and Water for Haiti
January 27, 2009

There are several projects to supply fuel, stoves and potable water to Haiti. Some have been been ongoing since before the quake and some. The organizations we know of are:

CHF International, Helps (Water Purifier)
To donate a $35 water purifying system, go to https://secure.helpsintl.org/store/haiti.php

Legacy Foundation (Fuel Briquettes)

Miombo, Project Haiti www.prohaiti.org
Peko Pe TLUD pellet fueled stoves to be distributed by Project Haiti. Pellets from Georgia.

Trees, Water, People TWP
Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team AMURT http://www.amurthaiti.org/ and
Recho Rocket stove made from mud formed in a bucket, the Haiti Rocket Stove
Stovetec Rocket Stoves in a metal bucket.

World Stove, International Lifeline Fund
Biucci, Everything Nice TLUD stoves fabricated in Haiti. Pellet fuel from Florida (Green Circle). Grass pellets to be made in Haiti.

A CLEAN BURNING COOKSTOVE DEVELOPED IN VIETNAM
Alexis Belonio, Tran Binh, Doan Thi Minh Nguyet, and Bui Dinh Hai
VINASILIC SJ, Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Center for Rice Husk Energy,
Philippines January 24, 2010

Fuelage
by
Jeffrey R. Davis
www.puffergas.com

FuelageFuelage

Abstract

Fuelage is a fuel and construction material made from grass or possibly other plant material. After the grass or other plant material has properly retted it is wet extruded in the form of a pellet and allowed to dry.

BACKGROUND:

In the fall of 2007 I was experimenting with composting as a source of space heating. This is called the Thermo-Biopile [2] and can be seen in photo 17. The plant material used was switch grass and wood chips. Photo 15 is the grass field before harvesting and photo 16 is the harvest photo. During the summer of 2008 I noticed a black material when the Thermo-Biopile was disassembled. I saved some of this material to test as a feed stock for Fireballs.

You can refer to my other article in order to understand the Fireballing process [5]. The first step was to place this material in a rotating drum with rocks and then after a period of ball milling the rocks were removed and the feedstock was left in the drum to see if it would agglomerate into balls. The consistency of the material would not allow this but it might be possible if another material was added.

It became obvious that this feedstock would be best used in an extruder so I modified a meat grinder that can be viewed in photo 1. The Fuelage is drying in photo 2 and 3. I'm not sure if this material needs to be milled (in this case ball milled) some before before extruding. An extruder could be designed to dewater and maybe mill this material, thus possibly a higher density particle and shorter drying period. Photo 4 is a picture of a dried particle.

Manually-operated biomass pelletizer - clay as a binder?
Charlie Sellers, May 10, 2008
Honeycomb CoalHoneycomb Coal

Small-Scale Carbon Briquetting in China
Tim Anderson, June 2005 courtesy fo Jim Mason, January 24, 2007

T-LUD Pellet Stove at BSNB4
Kevin Chisholm, July 8, 2006

I have had the opportunity to attend a local event, the BSNB4 on 2 June 2006, where some impressive technology, at early stages of development, was presented. One of the presentations, a T-LUD pellet stove, burning a 25 pound bag of wood pellets in 15 minutes, had a few rough edges, but it certainly brings the T-LUD to a new height. A suitable exhaust hood would, of course, be required for safe indoor use. See picture.

The Briquette Press
Continental Drift Blog March 17 2006

Briquette PressBriquette Press

Prairie Grass Pellet Energy
Joe King, Richard Nelson, Kansas State University 2000

An older site with missing links but good overall reference to pelletizing grasses.

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