[Terrapreta] Char made made under pressurized conditions?

[Jeff Davis]

Gerrit and Sean,


I'm thinking a composting reactor and a 12' dia by 100' ag bag. As the air
is pumped into the reactor the gas exiting the reactor (N2, CO2, NH3)
would be stored in the ag bag unitil scrubbed by the charcoal. Of course
after the chemistry was figured out the math for the amount of
compost/reactor gas and charcoal production could be found/matched.

Of course some charcoal on the bottom of the reactor to absorb leached
ammonia.


Best regards,


Jeff



> On the contrary, I think charcoal has a very good chance of absosbing
> ammonia produced in a compost pile, but it has nothing to do with hot
> or cool charcoal.  After all, charcoal is used to filter out the
> ammonia in fish tanks -  months after the charcoal has already
> cooled.  Charcoal doesn't work like a paper filter in a coffee
> machine that merely stops particles bigger than the holes in the
> paper.   It works more like a sponge, or a clay particle.  The static
> negative electrical charges within its pore structure attracts
> cations (positively-charged ions) and holds them electrically like a
> magnet.
>
> Check out the following abstract.  It turns out that char produced by
> low temperature (400) pyrolysis absorbed more ammonia than that
> produced at higher temperatures.
>
> http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110004809613/en/
>
> I proposed this idea some time ago on this list.  If we could get a
> researcher to test it successfully with compost making in general, we
> would be able to change the prejudice against using charcoal in
> making compost.
>
> Gerrit
>
>
> On 29-Mar-08, at 5:21 PM, Jeff Davis wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> I was thinking more on the lines of capturing the lost ammonia gas
>> (etc)
>> from the composting pile. If it would be possible to absorb this in
>> the
>> cooling period of the charcoal. I know it's a close to zero chance.
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Either case, I still doubt that N2 as a reasonably inert gas will do
>>> anything - either as a fertilizer or be absorbed into the char.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jeff Davis
>>
>> Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA
>>
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>
>


-- 
Jeff Davis

Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA