Questions about Biochar

[bazman]

My worm castings cast iron bath tub is still sitting where it fell over, so no not yet. I do have a high % Biochar compost going that is full of worms and soil life. That Biochar was made from my home unit. I will try and grab a photo to show the worms around the Biochar.

[S.O.P]

I added the rest of my dirty bag you gave me to the worm farm just to use it up. It was relatively thick in there.

I should have run some control tests. Definitely didn't affect the worms.

[S.O.P]

Barry,

I was linked a video to rocket stoves with higher efficiencies for developing countries and started to tinker around on the site. Clicking through lead me to a retailer of the stoves, with one of the by-products of cooking being biochar.

Is there a way to make a efficient rocket stove with a primary, yet ancillary function, of biochar production? Is there a timing issue there, as in, the time to cook an egg isn't proportional to make char?

Here is the video:



Here is the site: Aprovecho Research

[bazman]

James and myself have talked about the idea of modifying a rocket stove by adding a grate and quench bath under where the fuel burns which will allow bit's of char to drop into water and collect. Apart from doing that you will only really get char from when you put the unit out. Rocket stoves are designed to be continuously fed.

[S.O.P]

Not sure if you watched the video, but they have an 'industrial' stove that heats a 60L pot. What if that system was modified, or something similar, that area was used for the production of char, and a heating plate put on top for cooking, so while you cook, you make char.

[bazman]

You would need to find a use for the syngas produced as you apply heat to that biomass it would produce flammable/toxic smoke, to ignite it you would need to mix it with an air source.

The idea is not far from a retort, but once the inner chamber started to produce syngas you cannot stop it. Retorts are like a hard fuel rocket, hard to control once going.

You would be better adding a grate and quench bath to the rocket stoves fire area.

[hutchemo]

Hello,
i live in new york city and have access to all the pallets I could ever want. I was imagining using them in my char stove. I'm concerned about potential chemicals that I can't be certain are or are not used on the pallets. My research has shown that shipping pallets are largely not pressure treated but sometimes they are sprayed with mildicides or fungicides during shipping. My understanding is that when burning char at higher heats you release more volatiles and thus my finished product might not have much of the chemical left but my question is what would happen to these chemicals? Are they simply released into the atmosphere? I'm not sure if it is worth risking, if I am not sure of the history of the pallet.

thanks!

[Unmutual]

Hello,
i live in new york city and have access to all the pallets I could ever want. I was imagining using them in my char stove. I'm concerned about potential chemicals that I can't be certain are or are not used on the pallets. My research has shown that shipping pallets are largely not pressure treated but sometimes they are sprayed with mildicides or fungicides during shipping. My understanding is that when burning char at higher heats you release more volatiles and thus my finished product might not have much of the chemical left but my question is what would happen to these chemicals? Are they simply released into the atmosphere? I'm not sure if it is worth risking, if I am not sure of the history of the pallet.

thanks!

The chemicals have to go somewhere. They are either released as is, or are changed during the burning process(maybe to something safe, maybe to something even worse). Which one occurs would probably be dependent on the chemical used. How dangerous(if at all) the released gasses are would like-wise be dependent on which chemical was used. From what I can find, a bleach solution is normally used for pallets and can last from 5 days up to 6 months(though other methods are available, bleach seems to be the most popular). As with most chemicals, it's not the toxicity alone that is dangerous, but how much you consume(by breathing in, skin contact, drinking, etc.). If I were to use pallets for burning, I'd probably wait the 6 months then burn them(though from what I understand, pallets burn mighty hot).

[hutchemo]

thanks for the reply. that all makes perfect sense to me.
if i wait the six months you suggest that means the chemicals are just slowly off gassing anyway right?
Can you send me a link to where you found information about the chemicals used on pallets? If its just bleach I am not too worried but who knows what other things might be in use.
I wish I knew more about chemistry, as the idea that burning up these chemicals at a high enough heat might actually help break them down is intriguing but probably not within my abilities to figure out... I read a statistic that 1.5% of all the worlds trash are these pallets. Thats a whole lot of trees ending up in the landfill...

[Unmutual]

I just did a cursory google search, but the more I dig, the more confusing it gets especially with people putting out misinformation(one instance was that heat treated(HT) lumber uses chemicals in the process, which it doesn't).

http://www.cheaplikemeblog.com/envir...-wood-pallets/ - this is more about repurposing them than burning them.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load...091024630.html - talks about how hot they burn and the problem with pallets chemically treated before 2005.

http://www.palletenterprise.com/arti...articleID=2015 - someone, apparently in the pallet business, talking about health and safety.

I think one of the best pieces of advice I can give you(and it works with everything, especially for composting): get to know the source. If you're picking the pallets up from dumps, then that's impossible. If you get your pallets from a business, then you're more likely to find an answer.