The briquetting process is simple and easy to learn and could give many people the possibility to not only gain an income from selling the nut residues but also from working in briquette-making.
Several
options for briquetting equipment exist, there is no wrong or right
choice. Pretty much every technology will bring out some kind of
result when applied to any material under any production condition.
Choosing wisely will however influence factors such as durability of
the equipment as well as the quality and durability of the
briquettes.
Technical
aspects of DIY Brazil Nut residue processing
From
an engineer's technical point of view, the production of briquetts
from Brazil nut residues consits of three components: (1) breaking the
nutshell into smaller pieces, (2) grinding the pieces to a
sawdust-like consistency, and (3) compressing the grinded material
into briquettes. Of the three steps, and particularly under the DIY
paradigm, the most challenging step is number 2, the grinding of the
shell parts.
The
initial (1) breaking of the nutshell is done straightforwardly by
applying a strong mechanical impulse on the nutshell. Anything from a
sledgehammer to any form of an enlarged nutcracker will do the job;
the task is to organize the workflow and the role of human agency in
the process as efficent and safe as possible.
The
(2) grindig of the nutshell parts on the other hand really is a hard
nut, as the German idom goes. The technique we are following to crak
this nut is dirived from pre-industrial milling technologies. We
work with the classical system of two round millstones, one sitting
on the other spinning around a shared vertical axis. Between the two
discs the nutshell parts are grinded down to a suitable size by
friction and shearing forces. The main task for this step of the
process is to dimension the millstones properly, so that they can be
(a) produced and installed on site, (b) operated
without electrical or combustion engines, (c) maintained and
reproduced locally and independetly.
The
last step of the process is the (3) compression of the grinded
nutshells. To achieve this, the dust is mixed with water and the
mixture pressed into a perforated pressing mold. As the pressure
rises, the water is forced out of the mixture and the lignin in the
material diluted. As soon as the pressure is released, the lignin
immediately hardens out again and stabilzes the form of the resulting
briquette. For this step, it is crucial to establish the optimal
lever arm for compressing the material, as well as developing further
the many DIY-systems that are already available on the internet and
other sources. The aim is to design a compression mechanism suitable
for producing briquettes in a scale that is capable of potentially
tapping into markets beyond subsistence economies.
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| Buildung the millstones. Image: Jan Bovelet, 12.11.2013 |