How to Make Peanut Shell Charcoal

In third world countries, a new use for peanut shells may be charcoal.

Charcoal is usually made by carbonizing wood, but in some very poor, densely populated countries like Haiti, wood is difficult to get. The forests there have been depleted and there is an acute shortage of fuel. Haiti does, however, have peanuts. After a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010, students from Washington University of St. Louis's chapter of Engineers Without Borders worked with a nonprofit relief organization called Meds and Food for Kids developed a method to turn peanuts shells into charcoal using simple technology.

Things You'll Need

• Two sheets of newspaper
• Charcoal chimney
• Match
• 5-gallon plastic bucket
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• Plastic milk jug
• Scissors
• Pencil
• 2-foot length of 3-inch-diameter PVC pipe
• End cap for 2-inch-diameter PVC pipe
• 3-foot length of 2-inch-diameter PVC pipe
• Measuring cup

Instructions

1. Stuff two sheets of newspaper into the bottom of a charcoal chimney. A charcoal chimney is a perforated metal tube used to ignite charcoal briquettes.

2. Fill two-thirds of the charcoal chimney with peanut shells. Light the newspaper with a match.

3. Cover the top of the charcoal chimney with a 5-gallon plastic bucket after the shells begin to burn. Pile dirt around the bottom of the charcoal chimney with your hands.

4. Remove the peanut shell charcoal from the chimney when it cools after about 35 minutes.

5. Mix 1/4 cup of hot water and 1 cup of tapioca flour to make a thick paste. Thoroughly mix the paste with the charred peanut shells using your hands.

6. Cut a plastic milk jug into large pieces with scissors. Trace 3-inch-diameter circles on the plastic pieces with a pencil using a 2-foot length of 3-inch-diameter PVC pipe as a template.

7. Cut 3-inch-diameter disks from the plastic pieces using scissors. Push an end cap onto a 3-foot length of 2-inch-diameter PVC pipe. The end cap does not need to be glued to the pipe.

8. Hold the 3-inch-diameter PVC pipe vertically with one end on the ground. Push one of the plastic discs you cut into the pipe.

9. Measure 1/2 cup of the peanut charcoal/tapioca paste mixture using a measuring cup. Push 1/2 cup of the peanut charcoal tapioca paste mixture into the open end of the 3-inch-diameter PVC pipe.

10. Push another plastic disc cut into the 3-inch-diameter PVC pipe on top of the charcoal mixture. Push both disks and the charcoal paste to the bottom of the pipe using the sealed end of the 2-inch-diameter PVC pipe.

11. Continue to push charcoal paste sandwiched between plastic discs to the bottom of the 2-inch-diameter PVC pipe until all the charcoal paste is gone.

12. Lift the 3-inch-diameter PVC pipe and push all its contents out of one end using the closed end of the 2-inch-diameter PVC pipe.

13. Separate the charcoal disks and allow them to dry for two days. Burn or sell the peanut shell charcoal briquettes.

References

• Washington University Engineering Department; "Biomass Charcoal"; Jamie Cummings; May 2010
• Environmental Research Letters; "Going nuts for biochar"; January 2009
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division; "Going Nuts"; T Harrell; May 2010