EWB charcoal; burn notes, Sunday 4pm meeting

[Matt Ball]

Hey there!

The official write-up of last week's burn is still in the works but the
yield value has been calculated. We got about 17% by mass. I'd take
that as a very rough estimate as I have no faith in the scale we
used... On to binding!

This Sunday at 4pm we'll have a meeting for those interested in charcoal
binding and energy measurement. Let's meet on the second floor of Teer,
outside of the Vesic library entrance; we'll probably move down into the
labs in Teer's basement to do the actual work.
*Binding goals* form at least one briquette using each of the binders we
discussed previously (various processed potato types, water/starch
ratios, etc).
*Energy output measurement goals* finalize methods and locate equipment
for measuring the burning briquettes' output (this will actually be done
next week or later since the binder will need time to dry); if possible,
take data for a cob-shaped piece of charcoal (no binders).

I believe we need a bomb calorimeter for energy output measurement. Do
any of the chemistry types in this group have access to one of these or
know of another (better) process for finding a heating value?

Email me with questions, post on the webpage with thoughts. I hope to
see you Sunday!

Matt

Oh, and feel free to peruse the extensive photo-documentation of our
work thus far: http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/dukeewbcharcoal/
http://groups.google.com/group/duke_ewb_charcoal