White charcoal

[Michaelangelica]

I mentioned white coal on the blog but this is even stranger

Anyone out there with any ideas /experience of this?

 

Binchotan, the name given to white charcoal in Japan (which by many accounts is the country which first popularized its usage), is made by steadily steam-activating oak wood over a long period of time finally to temperatures up to and beyond 1,000 degrees Celsius.

. . .

"I have about 60 kilos in my house," laughs Fung.

 

"It's all around my studio. I even stick a charcoal stick in my vegetable compartment to make them last longer."

. . .

Back in black: Could charcoal be the new green? - CNN.com

[freeztar]

Interesting. I wasn't familiar with it until now.

There's lots of links for it on google, including the wiki page:

BinchÅtan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks freeztar. This is the stuff on white coal.

 

Tonight i saw a ABC TV Catalyst show, a segment on a delivery method for cancer chemotherapy (AKA 'rat poison') using a diamond skin patch. I wondered if it was just carbon and the 'diamond' label was marketing --just a little fib to make the patch sound more glamourous or effective.(?). Either way, an improvenment on present delivery system

 

Has anyone ever heard of this??

 

Posted: May 6, 2008

Post Expires: November 2, 2008

White Coal Source/Info for Power Plant?

 

We are working on a project to build a power plant in Massachusetts and looking for a local source of white coal as the source to create the power. In addition, we are looking for more information of the use of this product. Our focus is to provide power to local communities and beyond if program is successful. Plant will have the ability to burn coal; however white coal is reportedly cleaner, so we would prefer to go that route for a variety of reasons. Partner is prominent building contractor in the Northeast.

 

It's called 'white coal' - it may be a byproduct combined with agricultural waste or a cleaner coal product. This may be an accurate definition of it, "White coal is a form of fuel produced by drying chopped wood over a fire. It differs from charcoal which is carbonised wood. White coal was used in England to smelt lead ore from the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. It produces more heat than green wood but less than charcoal and thus prevents the lead evaporating. White coal was produced in distinctive circular pits with a channel, known as Q-pits. They are frequently found in the woods of South Yorkshire."

 

Contact Information:

Brett Robbins

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steadfastreos.com

Find Partners, Investors for Your Green, Cleantech Business

 

Japanese cooks aparently like white charcoal because, when burnt, it does no give off any smoke (!)

White charcoal is made by charring the wood at a relatively low temperature for some time, then, near the end of the process, raising the kiln temperature to about 1000ºC to make the wood red-hot.

The charcoal is then pulled out and quickly smothered with a covering of powder to cool it. The powder is a moist mixture of earth, sand and ash, and gives a whitish hue to the charcoal surface. This explains the name "white charcoal." The rapid rise in temperature, followed by a rapid cooling, incinerates the bark and leaves a smooth, hard surface. If you strike it, you'll hear a clear, metallic sound.

One variety of white charcoal is made from holm oak, a very hard wood used in kilns in the southern Kishu area (Wakayama Prefecture). This charcoal, called Kishu binchotan, is considered to be the best grade because it is hard and yields a long burn. It emits plenty of far-infrared rays, which bring out the flavor of broiled foods. Today, more and more establishments serving grilled eel and yakitori (skewered chicken) make a point of advertising the fact that they use binchotan charcoal.

http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia19/en/topic/index.html

[stefanl666]

Dear viewers,

 

I am interested in the production process of white charcoal.

I read all the other stuff from other websites and from this forum, but I couldn't find any details on how to make the sand, earth and ash mixture. So how much percentage sand, earth and ash.

I need to know this because together with my partner we've build a charcoal factory in Thailand and we want to diversify our product by producing white charcoal as well. We currently produce high quality black charcoal in the form of sawdust briquettes.

I am looking forward for someone's reply on this issue.

 

Best regards all!

[Essay]

Dear viewers,

 

I am interested in the production process of white charcoal.

 

Best regards all!

I was lucky enough to see some of this "white" charcoal at the first North American Biochar Conf. in '09.

I think it's a secret Japanese process, but I heard someone describe what they had seen in Japan....

 

It is amazing stuff. I would have guessed that I was holding an antler, rather than a piece of "petrified" wood.

I say petrified wood because you could see all of the structure of the branch, but it was as hard as a rock.

It looked just like the pieces in that lower picture (above).

It also did not easily blacken the hand when touched or rubbed. I felt as if it would work as a hammer, but I wasn't going to try it and risk breaking that beautiful hunk of heavy hardness.

 

I think the process involves burying the wood within a mass of very hot, very fine, white sand. I could imagine that adding diatomaceous earth (and ash?), to fill in the pores between the sand, might help exclude oxygen too --and help with heat transfer. I don't know about any "pre-processing" though. The wood could be pre-heated, or pressure-steamed perhaps, or soaked (or steamed?) in vinegar (or turpentine?) before burying in the sand; or...?

 

Let us know if you try (or discover) something! :naughty:

 

~ :D

[TPLim]

I am charcoal producer and had learned the skill of producing the white charcoal from the research professor in Malaysia. Now, we have successfully producing this white charcoal using the mangrove wood.

[Michaelangelica]

I am charcoal producer and had learned the skill of producing the white charcoal from the research professor in Malaysia. Now, we have successfully producing this white charcoal using the mangrove wood.

What is it being used for?

& Why is it special?

[Moontanman]

I'd like to see some charcoal made from crepe myrtle bushes, it's the hardest heaviest wood that I've found. it will not float even after years of drying out.

[TPLim]

What is it being used for?

& Why is it special?

 

This white charcoal is produced under high temperature. Great amount of heat is absorbed during the process. This amount of heat will be generated when burning the charcoal. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_(physics)

In Japan, this white charcoal (binchotan in Japan) is a premium charcoal in Kobe beef bbq due to this property, unlike the normal black charcoal which will burn the surface of the meat.

There white charcoal has very high fixed carbon content of above 95% by weight. This is used in the copper refinery. There is one copper manufacturing plant in Malaysia is using this white charcoal. I was invited in the tender for the supply of the white charcoal.

There are more applications as claim by many Japanese researchers.

[Essay]

This white charcoal is produced under high temperature. Great amount of heat is absorbed during the process. This amount of heat will be generated when burning the charcoal. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_(physics)

In Japan, this white charcoal (binchotan in Japan) is a premium charcoal in Kobe beef bbq due to this property, unlike the normal black charcoal which will burn the surface of the meat.

There white charcoal has very high fixed carbon content of above 95% by weight. This is used in the copper refinery. There is one copper manufacturing plant in Malaysia is using this white charcoal. I was invited in the tender for the supply of the white charcoal.

There are more applications as claim by many Japanese researchers.

 

The extra "heat" that is "absorbed" during the formation of white charcoal probably goes to make more double-bonded carbon, which would then burn hotter when the white char is used.

 

Lehmann's biochar book also shows how higher-temperature charcoals are more fully aromatic (benzene-like, or cyclic and fully double-bonded) carbon.

 

I suspect that white charcoal is more highly graphenic in nature, as opposed to the mixed graphenic/graphitic-carbon and amorphous-carbon nature of normal charcoal/biochar. Since graphene is sort of analogous to polymerized benzene (fully double-bonded carbon), that might explain the higher burning temperatures of white charcoal.

[TPLim]

The high temperature during the cabonization stage is required to rearrange the carbon molecule in one direction rather than the cross linking bond. This may explain the appearance of the white charcoal when you break it, it shows silvery shinning surface, and also the metallic sound if you hit it.

[Essay]

Yes, even with mined coal there is a whole system of grading (or classification) by the silvery shinyness and the metallic clink of the coal (google macerals). I think higher values indicate a higher proportion of double bonded/aromatic components. I think the shiny quality comes from fracturing between the graphene sheets, so we are looking at hybridized pi-bonded electrons (above the plane of the carbon atoms that form the graphene sheets).

 

When you say "rearrange the carbon molecule in one direction" I think that is referring to the buildup or stacking of graphene sheets, layered one atop the other, with fewer and fewer imperfections as the carbon atoms rearrange themselves. Graphene, looking like a sheet of chicken wire, is "cross-linked" in two dimensions--but it minimizes random cross-linking (and cross-linking between adjacent, stacked sheets).

[nengina10]

What if I using rubber shells for raw material to make white charcoal? there are any differences?