Paper/Biomass Briquette Press

[rbeau30]

So. I have a lot of junk mail, and mulched leaves in the fall/grass in the summer. So I figured I would build a Briquette press. (okay i have no idea how to spell that but yeah)

Inspired by THIS you tube video, and others.

I used some extra 2x4s and I bought a cheap bottle jack from Harbor Freight. Plus some short peices of 4" 3" and 1 1/4" pvc.

Here is where I am so far. I will lay out the components of the press when it is finished.

Materials:
- Wood screws.
- About three 6-foot 2x4s (I had various scrap in many lengths laying around)
- 1 4-foot long 4" PVC Pipe (cut in half) This is outer part of the press.
- 1 4-foot long 3" PVC Pipe (cut in half) This acts as the "ram" of the press.
- 1 section of 1 1/4 inch PVC Pipe (cut to fit into the hole at the bottom of the press to the top of the "ram". (This is the 'drain' where all the water gets forced out of the material as the press presses the biomass pulp.) This is also drilled with small holes to let water out and down through the bottom of the press.
- 4 3" PVC 'slip-caps' with a flat end. (These are the slip caps that would fit inside the 4" pipe, and outside the 3" pipe to act as the end of the 'ram'.)

Take aways so far:
- I think I would be able to utilize a pallet of some kind to help reduce the wood fabrication process. Maybe I will try that after I get this working.
- I don't think just standard 2x4s will work for very long. As they get quite wet, and the constant wet/dry may become a problem.
- It is messy. I fill these ram assemblies on a table just over the trashcan with "soup" as to drain the overflow back into the trashcan.
- If using biomass (leaves/grass clippings) I think I would add them to the paper right befor processing into bricks. The intruduction of biomass makes a highly fermentable slurry and smells BAD.

DATA
Shredded bills only (heat and not open air cooking):
- Measures inside diameter of a 4" pvc tube x 3" tall
- 12 days curing time (outdoors)
- 16 total bricks fom a trashcan of paper (half a lawn and garden trash bag of shredded paper).
- Each brick averages 1/2 pound

Shredded bills and grass clippings (heat and not open air cooking):
- Measures inside diameter of a 4" pvc tube x 3" tall.


Newspaper only (cooking on the grill...newspaper is supposedly natural vegetable based ink):

Newspaper and grass clippings (cooking on the grill as I don't put chemicals on my grass very often):

[birddog]

Let us know how it works, Im interested.

[blacklabel]

What do you plan to use the briquettes for?

[Irving]

Great idea making it so you can press at least two at a time. I wish I had seen this video over four years ago. Now we're moving out of our place with a fire place.

Please let us know how these burn with respect to sparks. My grandpa made a much more simple version of these paper briquettes, and when I burned them, it would shoot shreds of burning paper out the top of the chimney. They blew out while they were still in the air, but I was very wary about fire danger if I were to burn the paper when there wasn't snow on the ground. Please let us know.

[GilpinGuy]

This is an interesting idea. Please let us know how it works out.

Irving: do these burn well? I mean, are they even close to the burn rate of pine logs/split wood? I cut and split a shit-ton of wood every year. The pressing thing looks easier on the back if I can only get enough junk mail delivered (no leaves or grass up here, just pine needles).

Even if it just supplements the firewood supply it would be cool. And if they start easier than wood, that's a plus too.

[Irving]

The paper logs that I was burning did NOT burn as well as it appears these briquettes do in videos I have seen. The ones I was using were just rolled up news paper that was tied with a string, soaked in water, then dried. They were surprisingly difficult to light as well.

Here is the video I was referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Tyt...eature=related

Someone in the comments says that he was getting up to two hours out of the bricks he made. That is tough to believe though.

[GilpinGuy]

The paper logs that I was burning did NOT burn as well as it appears these briquettes do in videos I have seen. The ones I was using were just rolled up news paper that was tied with a string, soaked in water, then dried. They were surprisingly difficult to light as well.

Here is the video I was referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Tyt...eature=related

Someone in the comments says that he was getting up to two hours out of the bricks he made. That is tough to believe though.

Damn. Franky, I really don't think the time involved with this is worth it. I mean between gathering paper, leaves, etc., soaking it all, pressing and drying it, etc., it might just be easier to just cut down a dead tree and split it.

Of course, in a survival/preparedness situation this could be very useful, but you'd have to either have a ton of junk mail stored up or have made the briquettes in advance.

Now this is coming from a guy who lives in the mountains with trees all over the place. Maybe for someone in the burbs making these is a better option.

[Omicron]

I'm intrigued by this too. A nice way to get rid of junk paper if you have the time to process it all into bricks. How long each brick will burn will depend on how large they are, how much airflow is in your stove, how compacted they are, and what materials are in them.

[SideShow Bob]

If any of "You People" are into this or are going to try this, I can save the daily newspaper for you. You'll just need to pick them up on a regular basis though.

[Irving]

Getting the paper is easy. I bet we've had enough paper for 100's of bricks in just a year. For me the part that seems like the most pain is the container and space to create enough slurry that you could press out at least 20 bricks at a time. If you end up doing only 3-4 at a time it would take too much time.