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..
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.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://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..
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)
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