[Terrapreta] Fwd: compost and charcoal
Tom Miles
tmiles at trmiles.com
Sun Nov 25 13:14:49 EST 2007
The meaning of "charcoal" in the US has simply changed. Until 1925
"charcoal" meant charcoal, lump or sold in various fine grades. Now most
people think it means charcoal briquettes.
In the 1920s Henry Ford was faced with a shortage of wood alcohol which was
used as a solvent in lacquers and as anti-freeze. So he built a sawmill, a
(wood) auto body plant and a wood distillation plant to make his own in
Michigan.
"The wood distillation plant was a 400 ton per day wood waste pyrolysis
plant. . .The installation was a Stafford-Badger continuous vertical retort
system which daily produced: 120 tons of charcoal for outside sale, producer
gas which was used in company boilers, 5,800 gallons of ethyl acetate to
make lacquer, and 3,800 gallons of chemicals for sale to other firms. It was
at the time the largest pyrolysis installation built and operated." When
markets couldn't be found for the charcoal "it was then decided to make one
uniform product of charcoal to try to sell all over the country. Automatic
briquetting machinery and more dryers were installed and the Ford Charcoal
Briquet (FCB) was born! The Ford dealers all over the country were sent a
supply of the new FCB and every parts man will remember the initials, FCB."
>From Dave Tillman and other cited in "Black Gold: A History of Charcoal in
Missouri" by Robert Massengale, 2006. Authorhouse Press.
http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/BookStoreSearchResults.aspx?SearchType=
smpl&SearchTerm=massengale This is a great read.
Consolidation has led to a small number of briquette producers, the
principal ones being Kingsford and Royal Oak Enterprises. (Mr. EG Kingsford
was the first general manager of the Ford plant. He was a cousin of Ford's
by marriage.) In earlier discussions on this forum a Kingsford salesman told
us that grades of charcoal can be loaded out before blending and briquetting
and shipped in truckloads of 20 tons. So just get the charcoal in lumps or
before it is blended into the contaminated (or enriched) barbeque
briquettes.
Today a 400 ton per day plant to make charcoal and bio-oil would produce
about 60 tpd charcoal (at 15% yield) and cost about $30-50 million. A 400
ton per day plant to produce primarily charcoal would produce upwards of 120
tpd charcoal (at 30% yield). The cost should be substantially less. At an ex
plant cost of $100/ton the charcoal product from the primarily charcoal (120
tpd) plant would only be worth about $4 million per year so that other
products like electricity or oil would be needed to justify the investment.
Oil markets have not been established and electricity prices are low so
early bio-oil/charcoal plants are struggling or highly subsidized. We've
seen one of our two major briquette producers in Oregon (Royal Oak) shut
down in the last few years. Americans consume about 880,000 tons of charcoal
per year.
Tom Miles
-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Chisholm
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 9:27 AM
To: lou gold
Cc: terrapreta preta
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Fwd: compost and charcoal
Dear Lou
lou gold wrote:
> hmmm, doesn't this mistakenly equate char with ash?
Yes indeed!! The headline is totally misleading from the content. I have
written them asn asked tehm to change their headline.
Best wishes,
Kevin
>
> On Nov 25, 2007 11:26 AM, Gerald Van Koeverden <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca
> <mailto:vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca>> wrote:
>
> *Charcoal is **/Not/* * a Good Soil Amendment in Colorado*
> *
> *
> from http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Soil/charcoal.htm
>
>
>
>
> On 24-Nov-07, at 10:27 PM, Gerald Van Koeverden wrote:
>
>>
>>>
>>> Tom,
>>>
>>> Thanks for that link about the enhancing effect of charcoal on
>>> compost by Japanese researchers.
>>>
>>> Looks like some revision of the accepted methods of making compost
>>> might be in order. The first site I went to on making compost
>>> specifically advises avoiding charcoal in the compost pile!!
>>>
>>> http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/assistance/education/
>>> waste/composting.pdf
>>>
>>> The next two advised against using any charcoal ash. By not
>>> saying
>>> anything positive about using charcoal itself, the message
>>> conveyed
>>> is negative towards using charcoal at all as a composting
>>> component.
>>>
>>> Gerrit
>>>
>>> On 24-Nov-07, at 6:33 PM, Tom Miles wrote:
>>>
>>>> See the presentation on charcoal mixed compost at the IAI
>>>> conference by
>>>> Shuji Yoshizawa, Satoko Tanaka, Michio Ohata or
>>>> Meisei University and Shigeru Mineki, Tokyo University of Science.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.biochar-international.org/images/Yoshizawa_-
>>>> _Charcoal_Composting_
>>>> of_Rice_Bran_Effect_on_Microorganisms.pdf
>>>>
>>>> One slide:
>>>> "Composting from mixture of charcoal and biomass waste (Charcoal
>>>> Mixed
>>>> Compost, CMC)
>>>> Composts made from garbage generated by homes, restaurants and
>>>> food
>>>> industries and livestock
>>>> waste, and its utilization is receiving attention from the
>>>> viewpoint of
>>>> recycle of biomass wastes.
>>>>
>>>> As wood and bamboo have pores which are the size that are
>>>> suitable
>>>> for
>>>> microorganisms to support, by
>>>> adding the charcoal from the beginning of composting, the
>>>> proliferation of
>>>> microorganisms will be enhanced."
>>>>
>>>> Their results were positive.
>>>>
>>>> Tom
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
>>>>> <mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org> [mailto:terrapreta-
>>>>> bounces at bioenergylists.org
>>>>> <mailto:bounces at bioenergylists.org>] On Behalf Of Gerald Van
>>>>> Koeverden
>>>>> Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2007 10:42 AM
>>>>> To: terrapreta preta
>>>>> Subject: [Terrapreta] compost and charcoal
>>>>>
>>>>> We've had a lot of talk about the cost-benefit of applying
>>>>> charcoal
>>>>> to large acreages of land. And also about using compost or
>>>>> manure to
>>>>> enrich charcoal before applying it.
>>>>>
>>>>> What about adding charcoal to the compost pile at the beginning of
>>>>> the process? Has anybody researched the value of adding
>>>>> charcoal to
>>>>> the biomass right at the beginning? A lot of ammonia is
>>>>> released to
>>>>> the atmosphere during composting; would charcoal act as a
>>>>> sponge to
>>>>> soak it up and hold it, along with mineral nutrients which are
>>>>> easily
>>>>> susceptible to leaching? In effect, if this is true, charcoal
>>>>> fines
>>>>> as part of the composting process would significantly add to the
>>>>> potential nutrient value of that compost.
>>>>>
>>>>> gerrit
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Terrapreta mailing list
>>>>> Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
>>>>> <mailto:Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
>>>>> http://bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/
>>>>> terrapreta_bioenergylists.or
>>>>> g
>>>>> http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
>>>>> http://info.bioenergylists.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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> --
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