Grass as fuel

[Ahmed]

Remundo, you write:

It's easy to dry grass: spread it on dry and preferably covered ground. In summer in the open field, it is called haymaking.

Grass is easy to dry (when the weather is good ...), but the grass is much less (since it is much more compact and crushed => fermentation) and this requires work that is out of all proportion to the expected result. .

[Remundo]

grinding promotes drying because it considerably increases the exchange surfaces with air while breaking up the plant fibers; water evaporation is very favored. You just have to spread the mowing.

[Ahmed]

True, but it removes the natural volume of hay that allows the passage of air, which makes spreading the lawn particularly laborious for a very thin result (sic!).

[urok]

Hi,
I don't think drying is a problem.
The two other cases that I mentioned, in my opinion, are more:
- does the cut grass have good energy power? In my opinion, equivalent to hay but hay does not seem to me used as fuel ...
- If the answer to the previous question is yes, is it possible to form dense grass briquettes?
To read ...

[Remundo]

I think there should be a product capable of agglomerating dry and ground turf ... Incorporate the turf in a dry combustible liquid paste ...

otherwise the lawn is basically biomass, like wood, with a calorific value probably close in kWh / kg, on the other hand in kWh / m3, the lawn must be bad. Already the wood in pellets is not very good from this point of view.

an interesting table: http://www.ecologie-pratique.org/articl ... e_biomasse

I read that some boilers used straw as fuel.

[urok]

Hello everybody
if straw is used as fuel, it seems close to cut grass ... We are progressing ...
If anyone had more specific experience in the field, it would be welcome.
To read ...

[chatelot16]

wood straw grass leaves, it's always biomass, but not the same composition

easily visible result the amount of ash: very little ash for solid wood ... a lot of ash for bark and grass

therefore impossible to make standard pelet with grass: it will be refused by all current pelet hearths

to recover low quality biomass, drying is not the only problem to be solved: the main problem is to make good stoves accepting bad fuel

as long as there is no good stove available commercially no need to tire of drying grass that no one can use

for those who already have a woodchip heating, mixing the grass with a large quantity of well-dry woodchip is a solution ... it must be done immediately, otherwise the slightest heap storage of the mowed grass starts to heat , and if it heats it is that energy is lost! that bacteria waste energy ... and I am even afraid that if the wasteful battery proliferates in the grass before mixing with wood it will continue to waste energy from wood instead of bringing energy from l 'grass

it is therefore necessary to mix immediately so that fermentation does not start: empty each basket of the mower on the heap of wafers and mix with a fork

it would be more interesting to invent a way of making food for the cattle which is preserved like hay: I think of a vacuum drying: put in a tank with a vacuum pump, which will produce a very fast drying, and a good conservation ... I have a slurry spreader trailer which can be used for that ... the vane pump driven by the PTO of the tractor does not make a sufficient vacuum to evaporate the water, it will need a better vacuum pump

it will also require a practical and reliable door closing system: the original system is of the kind just dismantled as often as possible

[urok]

Ashes are not really a problem if the turf is placed in briquettes on a grid ventilated enough to drop the ashes into an ashtray sized accordingly.
As for the fact that nothing exists to burn grass, I remind you of this URL: https://www.stovax.fr/poeles/poeles-a-b ... bustibles/ where they say it's possible !!
To read ...

[Remundo]

I think turf is not a "very clean" fuel compared to well harvested straw.

in my opinion, burning grass creates poor quality combustion with a lot of waste. But hey, it heats for the motivated.

[urok]

You're right Remundo, that's all we want after all: to heat up.
If companies like Stovax offer devices for burning grass, that's good that it should be possible. I emailed them to find out more. I'm waiting for an answer.
If anyone has any experience in this area, or using hay, I am interested.
A read.