Mart Hale

Dealing with plastics...

This is a tough subject because there are many types of plastics out there...

From my perspective I believe we can find alternatives for plastic like clay, stopping the problem from the start is a good way to move.

But the reality is plastic is how 95 % of water is transferred to homes today with PVC Pex pipes,  which is a great upgrade from the lead pipes that were used and in some places still exist in plumbing.

We can recycle the plastic our self with heat, and make different items with it.       But one needs to be cautious of the fumes created by heating the plastic....    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJbdlRbgJU


Others have extracted the oil from plastic to make fuel for engines.      Yet another method used is to burn the plastic directly stopping the micro plastics from polluting the environment  and using the heat...

Myself, I don't trust the science that tells me that worms can eat plastic and then it is all ok to use to feed to my plants...     The Science of times past also told us that DDT is good for you and me....        This might be possible, but not something I trust.        I like the idea of doing a clean burn in an incenerator as the best option I see, much like they do with tires to produce electricity.

Another option, is Carbon Foam batteries...    Video about them on youtube, can take them down to zero volts and does not hurt them.

I would love to test out the battery chemistries that Robert Murray Smith on youtube suggests,   but I prefer to buy a solution instead of fight thru a jungle to find it may or may not work.  ;-)

Getting even slices with bananas is important as you want them all to dry at the same rate in the dehydrator...

I found using this onion slicer works great and I got the task done much faster than before.

John Suavecito wrote:

Mart Hale wrote:

Others bury the charcoal in their garden and just allow time for the char to charge.

I think that this method works, and is probably what the original Terra Preta people did.  It's fine if, like them, you've got a lot of acreage and don't need to use that land for a few years.  

However, if like me, you are already old, and you only have a small amount of land that you can use, you might not want to give up each area that you biochar for a couple of years.   If you have a small amount of yard and a short timeline, IMO this method is limiting. Inoculation is really not as hard as giving up productivity of that land for that time, IMHO.

John S
PDX OR

Yeah,  

All depends on your needs.      I ran into a guy who steams his to clean out the pores of the biochar....        

I considered soaking the biochar in different fertilizers like epson salt etc  to have a slow release fertilizer....    lots of options out there....  do what is best for you...     I love hearing what others do.

I have adopted what I have found another youtuber has shown for charging the biochar.      They put the biochar into their worm bin and give it months of time so that it can absorb the good stuff from the worm bin which is full of life.

Others bury the charcoal in their garden and just allow time for the char to charge.

Michael Jacobsen wrote:

Mart Hale wrote:I have a long thread on the sand battery (snip snip)

This is a proven method of using waste oil, it deals with all the problems of impurities in the oil.

Thank you! I will definitely check out your thread and the video. The oil burner design I'm working on is top fed and uses a rear disk break rotor as the base. I will post either a diagram at some point or pictures of the unit itself once it's together if I end up building it. I am mainly concerned with having the sand battery be on the exhaust chimney stack and if I'm going to have issues with backpressure on the system. The exhaust expansion area is a first-thought attempt to mitigate that somewhat while also potentially functioning as a cooking surface. There "might" be a nautilus shell partition in the expansion area that will route the hot gasses around and out. Going to try leaving it open at first and maybe switch later to see the difference.  Planning for ~4" ID on most of the pipework. I will be building and testing this unit outdoors but the hope is to be able to run it inside eventually if it proves safe.

Yes, other things to look out for is don't use wet sand, it gives poor results and steam can be a real issue with the heat source you are using.

I have been thinking that the cob  rocket mass design,  or mason heaters might be a good place to look for design ideas as they already store and release heat  for home heating....    

Oil gives great advantage as you can almost go heat on demand....

Attached is a photo of a guy who uses waste heat for his outdoor spa...      It has  "BOOM SQUISH"  written all over it,  but the concept looks good just needs regulation of the heat   ;-)

I have a long thread on the sand battery and this idea hit me recently to combine waste oil + storage in a thermal mass...

To make this even more effective I was thinking insulating the sand battery  with waste styro foam with a combo of styro crete....

The way the gents over in Europe do this is with electrical heated forced air thru the sand to heat / pull the  heat out of the mass.

I started with sand, but I have moved more into metal because of it's density and how easy it is to pull the heat out of it.

This is a proven method of using waste oil, it deals with all the problems of impurities in the oil.     I have seen many attempt using diesel heaters but they clog up big time over time.

Google and I got a divorce....    :-)

I buy old Pixel phones   then I re-install the operating system so that there are no google services.     No google play, no google services running...

Lineage OS   is where I started,  now trying other OS..

I like having control over my phone,  no more COVID tracking on me.