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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Home business, Activated Charcoal and much more
  • Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:14:00 -0700

I wasted half a day trying to get Google and Yahoo to find the activated charcoal producer---found it in my archived e-mail messages on the hard drive---stupid google is as useful as teats on a boar hog---doesn't look at solstice.crest.

You are fifty miles by dog team from your benevolent electric utility, and the dogs are tired of hauling diesel fuel by sled, you are tired just thinking about the cost of PV panels and batteries to run a refrigerator and icemaker, you will find your economical answer below.

Oh, yeah, by this time you know all about the once easily available archives from Homepower, now are on CD and have to be bought---your fault for not downloading them while they were free. Still a bargain though, get yours now.

Follow up on the full-spectrum solar cell, it is your best hope for PV cells that are cost-competitive with fossil fuel to run your steam-powered computer.

Go deeper into Baviotas Bogata engineers products which this time I did not---do your share, and if you find something real good, post it.



http://www.bluemud.org/article/11606 (how to make bombs from household chemicals book, and formulafor DIY black powder, for which you need charcoal of course.) Good blow-up-the-world stuff, like the Anarchist Cookbook I once bought at a bookstore, only to find when I got home that they had scissored out all the good stuff---dirty SOB's should have warned me and their other anarchist-customers..


Various solar icemakers:

http://www.lightlink.com/francis/IcemakerManual.html

http://www.solarmirror.com/fom/fom-serve/cache/33.html (improved Icyball, in Homepower #53)

http://www.solarmirror.com/fom/fom-serve/bags/solar-icemaker-article-350kbytes.pdf (link doesn't copy, probably have to buy Homepower CD)

http://www.solarmirror.com/cgi-bin/faq.cgi?editCmds=show&file=41 (lithium chloride, solar powered house cooling)

http://66.218.71.225/search/cache?p=%22+solar+icemaker%22&ei=UTF-8&u=www.homepower.com/files/solarice.pdf&w=%22solar+icemaker%22&d=E1ABDA6EF3&icp=1&.intl=us (more detail and component costs in webcrawler cache---still have to buy the Homepower #53 CD)

http://www.energy-concepts.com/isaac.html (commercial manufacturer of ISAAC solar refrigeration/icemaker)

http://www.istori.com/cgi-bin/wiki?SolarIcemakers (Kaminski, Georgia Tech solar icemakers, reference to Homepower)

http://www.caddet.org/brochures/index.php (CADDET.org had some data, but for no good reason dropped it)

http://www.me.gatech.edu/energy/andy_phd/ (Einstein refrigeration cycle, uses bubble-pump for circulation, the whole thing is solar powered)

http://www.pacificsites.com/~sps/refrigeration.html (Small Power Systems startup experimental models,some good safety comments and design features)

http://www.dharma-haven.org/five-havens/gaviotas.htm (I suspect Gaviotas Bogota engineers have come up with solar refrigeration, haven't made a search for it, but anything Gaviotas does is worth reading and doing)

http://www.sustainablevillage.com/servlet/display/product/detail/22565 (various sizes of ISAAC, from vaccine refrigerator to fishing village 1000 lbs a day icemaker)

http://www.world.eu.org/cgi-bin/awki.cgi/SolarEnergy

http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-full-spectrum-solar-cell.html (I've posted this before, but using the full spectrum in a photocell is probably the most significant advance in lowering PV cost that has come down the pike---not double the efficiency, but well over an additional fifty percent)

http://www.solarcooking.org/plans.htm (great solar cooker website, Cookit folding you can carry under one arm, funnel cookers with no risk of eye damage, increased collection area at funnel top, increases heat at bottom, a scaled up solar cooker with a collector backing of clay, two solar water sterilizers, solar food dryer, tracking box cooker, Aprovecho Rocket Stove.)

http://www.firststreetonline.com/product.jsp?id=7771&promotion=85439 (stainless white LED solar light for footpaths at night)

http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/alternative-energy/net-resources/renewable-energy.html (Duane Johnson's RedRok links)


http://solstice.crest.org/articles/static/1/1011975672_7.html (haw-w-w, here it is at last, no thanks to unmassaged Google)
While there is a schematic to file under Activated Carbon in your hard drive---don't trust bookmark links to remain unbroken and trust search engines even less to find anything useful in recent years. You're going to be generating superheated steam in the monotube spiral---212 degree steam is useless for activating charcoal. You want to get 800 to 1000 degrees Celsius for high quality activated charcoal. Incidentally, current wholesale price of activated charcoal is $3.00 a kilo, astronomical if made into pills or filters.

This is a good image to save---never know when it will come in handy to be able to product your own activated charcoal to use or in a homemade product to sell, and you sure as hell won't be able to find it with Google, even if it still existed..


http://isaac.exploratorium.edu/~pauld/activities/AlAirBattery/alairbattery.html (make a Burrito Battery, 1 volt, 100 MA per activated carbon, aluminum foil layer. (throw this in for free if you need a homemade battery for your discombobulator. It would work better with sodium hydroxide as an electrolyte, though)

The schematic should appear if you click the attachment in upper right hand box.

And now the precursor search results on making charcoal (or gunpowder for your DIY firearms and guided missiles if you have noticed this a-a-ah, Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas Supreme Court, true, blue CONSERVATIVE Republicans who would NEVER, EVER interpret away entire sections of the Constitution as fast as their little, tiny minds will permit, have left the Constitution a tattered rag. Used to think Survivalists were nut cases, not so sure any more)


In the footsteps of DuPont and CIA

http://www.fireworksnews.com/blackpowdernewbk.htm (black powder manufacturing)


http://forestry.about.com/library/weekly/aa051798.htm?terms=charcoal (several ways of making charcoal)

http://www.velvitoil.com/Charmake.htm (Gill website)

http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/charcoal/ (another using old 55 gallon barrels)

%2Faa051798.htm%3Fpid%3D2820%26cob%3Dhome,,aol

http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5328e/x5328e00.htm (FAO, United Nations, little larger scale and economic considerations)

http://forestry.about.com/treeincome.pdf (make your woodlot produce an income better than just from firewood. As close as you will come to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in this society. You don't have a woodlot---get a cheap license to scavenge in the nearest National Forest, or talk to a neighbor worried about the fire hazard of downed and standing deadwood in HIS woodlot---he won't pay you for reducing his risk, but will welcome you with open arms if you provide the pickup truck, chainsaw and sore back to alleviate his problem. Or visit the closest sawmill who can get something for slabwood but not for small slabwood pieces which keep piling up unless run through a grinder for bedding---may keep piling up after that, too.)

Charcoal is readily saleable in almost any city. If you had enough production capacity you could set up a little booth (and barbecue grill samples) in front of any grocery or home improvement store and put Kingsford and its lousy pseudocharcoal out of business. I wouldn't reduce the price of real charcoal since it is totally unnecessary, the bright exterior appearance and cleaner fire speaks for itself. Work out standard quantities in imprinted plastic bags from any one of a thousand bag suppliers---use a vapor-impermeable bag..

A little more work, woodlot essential oils are another homestead product--sell direct in your own soaps, candles, kitchen extracts, or to small soapmakers on the Web.

http://www.geocities.com/thejuiceuk/charcoal.html (you wondered how those expensive handwarms from sporting goods stores work? Expensive doesn't mean the ingredients or stamped container is expensive) And if made from fine material like straw, your charcoal lends itself to making rocket fuel without attracting attention from Mad Dogs Ashcroft and Ridge)
You aren't going to sell and handwarmers in the summertime (whoever heard of a homeowner repairing a roof BEFORE it started leaking), but maniac November duckhunters and ice-fisherman fill their pockets with them. A low-cost-to-produce item with a very high markup. I think some now contain a fuel cell you can give a liquid rechargd---haven't researched the details or patent status. You do both, I may never get around to it.














  • [Homestead] Home business, Activated Charcoal and much more, Tvoivozhd, 09/10/2004

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