Anybody see the new "ash test" on The Naked Whiz s

[u2plt]

I got no response from Kamado on not only bad ECL, but on something else.

[curly]

[Porkchop]

[Nemesis]

[Santana]

Hello

For those who are interested in reading how to make an extruded charcoal and what's the meaning of ash, moisture, etc.

Moisture content
"...There is evidence that charcoal with a high moisture content (10% or more) tends to shatter and produce fines when heated in the blast furnace, making it undesirable in the production of pig iron..."

Volatile matter
"...High volatile charcoal is easy to ignite but may burn with a smoke flame. Low volatile charcoal is difficult to light and burns very cleanly. A good commercial charcoal can have a net volatile matter content - (moisture free) of about 30%. High volatile matter charcoal is less friable than ordinary hard burned low volatile charcoal and so produces less fines during transport and handling. It is also more hygroscopic and thus has a higher natural moisture content...."

Fixed Carbon
"...The fixed carbon content is the most important constituent in metallurgy since it is the fixed carbon which is responsible for reducing the iron oxides of the iron ore to produce metal. But the industrial user must strike a balance between the friable nature of high fixed carbon charcoal and the greater strength of charcoal with a lower fixed carbon and higher volatile matter content to obtain optimum blast furnace operation..."

Ash content
"...The ash content of charcoal varies from about 0.5% to more than 5% depending on the species of wood, the amount of bark included with the wood in the kiln and the amount of earth and sand contamination. Good quality lump charcoal typically has ash content of about 3%. Fine charcoal may have a very high ash content but if material less than 4 mm is screened out the plus 4 mm residue may have an ash content of about 5-10%. Buyers naturally suspect fine charcoal and it is difficult to sell (and use, unfortunately)...."

Also to be considered is heat value and burning time, since this variables will affect the effectiveness of your charcoal.

More from FAO.ORG


The techniques of briquetting
"...Charcoal is a material totally lacking plasticity and hence needs addition of a sticking or agglomerating material to enable a briquette to be formed. The binder should preferably be combustible, though a non-combustible binder effective at low concentrations can be suitable. Starch is preferred as a binder though it is usually expensive. Highly plastic clays are suitable providing not more than about 15% is used. Tar and pitch from coal distillation or from charcoal retorts have been used for special purpose briquettes but they must be carbonised again before use to form a properly bonded briquette. They are of good quality but costly to produce...."

Economics of briquetting
"...The cost of briquetting mainly depends on three factors. The cost of the fine charcoal delivered at the plant ready for processing, the cost of the binder and the incidence of capital costs. Fines which normally have little value, are usually reckoned to have zero cost to justify the briquette plant investment..."

More from FAO.ORG

[Gerard]

Santana,

This is great stuff. Thanks.

[Santana]

Hi Gerard

Here we use a briquette terms as for the looks of the product, while extrude is the process of making the briquettes. Yes, we put carbonized granular with specific size and mix them with a binder (very natural binder. A fruit starch), then we extrude them into a briquette shape.

Good quality one will be using granular, the more granular, the more heat value, longer burning time and less ash. But it will cost you more. As far as I am concerned, there is no manufacturer that will give you 100% granular as a raw material since it is costly. But it you want a very long burning time and highest heat value, then 100% granular is a must.

This type of briquette is kind of new to west part of the world market compared to wooden briquette, so we feel that we need to educate the market that coconut shell is the choice, since it will save the rain forrest and will have a tropical smell (without the essence )

There is also bamboo charcoal with a bamboo's oriental smell, but this type of charcoal is not very popular in the west, they are very popular in Japanese market.

If you go to area near the beach, you will find charcoal which is made of coconut shell, otherwise you will find wooden one, especially in Asia.

Maybe you are wondering why there is a hole in the middle of it? That's the secret of the heat value. Pillow shape will not get heat value as high as the one with the hole.

We have been researching this since 1990 with Japenese and Korean researchers, and we are not inventing it, but improving it. What makes it different is just the binder, quality of the shell and the process of extruding it.

If you research a little bit more, there are only two places in the world where coconut shell has the best quality, Sulawesi island and Phillipines.

Hope it helps. I am sorry I couldn't give you the picture of the production process.

Best regards

[curly]

Santana,

Good educational stuff, thanks.

[Porkchop]

yknow, funny thing, was watching foodtv recently, and they showed a japanese family eating a dish that they grilled themselves at table at a restaurant. there was a really good view of the little grill they used on the table top. lo and behold, the extrusion lump was very visible in the grill. neat!
_________________
Expand Q Consciousness
http://porkchopbbq.freehostia.com/

[Santana]

[foxhound]

A new thread appeared regarding the lump quality......Richards' answer is priceless.

[Fromthesidelines]

I like the part where he implies the they will start giving it away!

[Santana]

(1) allow for more weight in the boxes and
(2) to make a longer briquette for longer burning. The carbonization of the coconut shells is the same.
(1). How can that be? The size is a lot bigger than the old one.... 16lbs is 16lbs. You will have 16lbs with hundreds of small briquettes or you will have few briquettes totaling 16lbs.

(2). I don't get it. How can it be longer burning time if you compare to other 16lbs of the old one? If he is comparing piece to piece, then it might be longer, but looking at his product, I am sure the burning time not longer than the old one even though you compare them piece by piece.


The carbonated coconut shells are closely government regulated because of the primary end product is filters, so we can be assured of the raw material of quality carbonized coconut shells
Nope. And definitely not in Indonesia.

Of course, there are a lot of crazy things that can happen after packaging, including leaking containers, crushed boxes and other surprises.
The box won't crush if it has strong briquettes inside the carton box.

however coconut charcoal will be coconut charcoal
Well, not really if you put 50% of binder into it. Or the raw material is not cleaned before used. The raw material will be accidentally mixed with other material if you don't know how to do it.

We pulverize the shells and screen into different sizes for extrusions but the burning characteristics are much the same
Anyone can see from the picture that there is no granular in it. It's all pure powder. You need a sophisticated filter machine to filter out powder.

The btu of 16 pounds of all KEC is much the same whether the coconut comes for Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia or any other country in the “coconut belt”
Nope. powder is powder, granular is granular. How can he compare the powder with 'glue' to make it looks like granular, compare to pure granular?


I honestly believe it is the best charcoal and at the lowest wholesale price
And I believe that this is the worst quality with the lowest production cost ever produced to rip off customers.

[DoubleIPA]

Yo Whizzy, could he be talking about you?? hahahahaha

BTW, you gotta love how this con artist is trying to make believe he produces the charcoal. Ridiculous, though it would be par for the course - shitty grills & shitty charcoal!!

[curly]

What a spin doctor...100% grifter