homemade briquetts

[wood thing]

Is anybody making homemade briquetts ? I just built a simple press and tried some sawdust, shavings, and paper. It doesn't seem to be binding together like I thought. Any input is good. Thank-you

 

[Rick Stanley]

Here's some stuff.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/62633/

 

[Rick Stanley]

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/ind...42277_61mhMKDxRi2Ny8vWovIR&thumb=1&board_id=1

 

[Briquetmaker]

Is anybody making homemade briquetts ? I just built a simple press and tried some sawdust, shavings, and paper. It doesn't seem to be binding together like I thought. Any input is good. Thank-you

You really need a lot of pressure to bind the sawdust together. My press uses 1500 PSI. The lignin in the wood is what holds it together and take a great deal of pressure to do that. It also produces heat when pressing which I believe helps in the binding. Regular pellets have that glaze to them from the heat while pressing them.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

Is anybody making homemade briquetts ? I just built a simple press and tried some sawdust, shavings, and paper. It doesn't seem to be binding together like I thought. Any input is good. Thank-you

The moisture content needs to be right. I saw where someone making pellets used a cheap cement mixer to stir up the stuff well, Randy

 

[wood thing]

Thanks Randy, I know my first batch was too dry so I wet it up more. I still think its too dry because of the uneven compression. I am using a 5 gal bucket and a joint compound mixer with cordless drill. Next try I am going to leave pressure on for a longer time. Time will tell

 

[jebatty]

I made a simple effort at this awhile ago using a pipe with a ram to compress the shavings, and used the log splitter to provide the ram force. Same result, not enough compression, too dry, not much binding effect. I was looking to get 4" x 6" mini-logs. I read somewhere that when warmed and well mixed, adding some molasses works as a binder. Didn't try it though.

 

[wood thing]

Thanks Jim -- I thought about the wood spliter as well but before I go to that extreme I want to know I'm getting the result. They make binder for wood pellets but I don't want to go to addition expense. Also I believe you can use veg oil but can't see how this would mix with water. This is not a major issue, just a winter project. Its a shame that with all the waste we all have, it is wasted.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

I'm not sure what pressures are involved with making bricks. The pellets sometimes use a rolling mill & there is great pressure with that. If I were going to make bio bricks I would use a 10,000 psi system with a ram in the 50 ton range. You could start with a high pressure hand pump to prove the concept & move to an electric if satisfactory. Randy

 

[wood thing]

Now I'm getting someplace ! Thanks, 50 ton, wow -- My wood splitter is 22 ton. I'm just using a bottle jack now, maybe 5 ton, don't know. I'm just going by what I saw on the internet but they don't always tell you everything. Maybe I could squeeze it twice Ha Thanks again and have a good day.

Denny

 

[jimbom]

Sorry, this is off topic. I think Kingsford Charcoal makes their briquettes from sawdust. Perhaps there is a market for your sawdust. Use the money to buy wood.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

Now I'm getting someplace ! Thanks, 50 ton, wow -- My wood splitter is 22 ton. I'm just using a bottle jack now, maybe 5 ton, don't know. I'm just going by what I saw on the internet but they don't always tell you everything. Maybe I could squeeze it twice Ha Thanks again and have a good day.

Denny

You could try a 50 ton bottle jack, that would be a lot cheaper. Run the ram out & then when partly compressed run the threaded part out. You may still need to make a spacer with the amount that the bricks get compressed, Randy

 

[bioman]

wood thing i've been working on the same thing, earlier this fall i made some logs out of hay. the concept works, they turned out good. i used my skid steer with aux hydraulics and a cylinder and pushed it trough a cone shape tube . now i'm going to build a system simular to a log splitter with a 6"x48" cylinder which should give me a 24" log. like everyone else i have big piles of brush from cutting wood i plan to run through a chipper and try that also. i bale hay every year 500-600 5'x6' bales so hay is no problem. my intetion is to heat everything with biomass products that i will burn in my horizontal gasifier boiler that i am buiding now. all of the biomass presses i'f looked at seem to use steam, so i'm going to incorporate some type of heat on my press cone to release the lignins which will bind them together. good luck on your project. i'll watch your posts.

Larry

 

[wood thing]

I tried a larger bottle jack today along with wetter mass. It did work better but still not as good as I think it could. I'm going to re-rig and try to use the wood splitter. Hopefully we will lose some snow this week so I can get it in the shop. I'm bush hogging about 60 acres. Maybe I'll try some of that this fall. All my hay making equipment is long gone. My farming now is a dog and six chickens. I knew a guy that would burn baled hay in his owb during the summer. I never saw this or heard of the results but I bet it smoked just a little. Probably didn't have any skeeters. Thanks to all for your input.

Denny

 

[duckandabluesailor]

All this talk of binders and water et al, am I crazy to be hoping to get sawdust from kiln dried hardwoods to press and stay formed with a 30 ton shop press?? I make about 80 garbage bags of fine sawdust monthly. Tired of giving it away for horse bedding and would really like to figure a way of making bio logs without starting with a sloppy wet mess.

 

[wood thing]

I havent done much with this lately. I think you should have different sizes particles and some paper, this will help hold things together. You have to make your own recepe. I thought about using some flour in my mix to glue things together but never tried it. Longer drying seems to help also. Lots of things on U-tube. Good luck

 

[HeatFarmer]

What would be the problem with just burning wood chips as they are.....just shovel them in on top of a bed of coals and wood? I produce tons of the stuff when clearing land and most of it is pretty chunky stuff. I save out the fruit woods and handle them separately for meat smoking projects......

 

[maple1]

I can't see any problem with that, as long as they're dry. Wood fibre is wood fibre. I could see maybe though if a whole bunch was shovelled in, it could have a smothering effect and block the passage into the secondary burn chamber.

Maybe?

 

[WoodChoppa]

Never mond processing the waste product just burn it as is!
Looks like this Bio-Burner 100 can burn almost any biomass waste product.

http://www.bioburner.com/

 

[Mushroom Man]

I just threw in a few bags of dry spent mushroom substrate on top of some hardwood splits and they gasified really well. They seem to burn fairly slow too, though that isn't a big issue with storage to heat.

These bags had been in a windswept shed for three years. They are 99% wheat straw, compressed at time of production, held together with mycellium, the mushroom root system, (for lack of a better explanation) and left in their plastic columns (with holes) to dry.

I had tried burning them before but the straw was too wet. A three year lead-time might be the answer. I may have another source of fuel to go with the hardwood, softwood and slab wood. What I like about this fuel is that it is waste for us and otherwise a disposal issue, and no additional processing appears to be needed.

I'd like biomass (straw, or switchgrass, or miscanthus) to become a staple diet for this boiler like it is apparently in Europe.

 

[bigburner]

We just put a Brush Bandit 250 [12" chipper] in the tool box. My plan is to chip some perfectly good ash logs [that are dry] and try burning chips, my burner lends itself to shovel in a product like wood chips, it's below grade and is all fire brick. My point is that if it will work on dry wood then I my be able to quit dumping some of the chip loads over the hill. Think maybe they can be turned over with a backhoe, skid steer something in the summer to help dry them out. Still have not tried a bale of straw yet either.