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New Type Of Charcoal Produces More Heat
The California company that produces Soilok, a product that’s sprayed onto gravel and dirt roads to harden them (Vol. 35, No.3), is now using the product to make charcoal. The idea is important for developing countries because charcoal is often used as an inexpensive fuel for cooking and heating. 
    Using Soilok to make charcoal saves trees because organic waste materials are used to produce the product.  The result is a charcoal that’s inexpensive to manufacture, burns cleaner, and saves valuable vegetation.
    Kent Rush of Pacific Enzymes says the new technology produces Soilok Charcoal in a cost efficient way so the product is less expensive than traditional charcoal. The Soilok process uses organic matter such as coconut husk, leaves, twigs and discarded charcoal dust. Material is dried, ground into a uniform size, then mixed with Soilok and water before being compressed into briquettes. Within a day the briquettes are dry enough for packing and shipping.
    Rush says using discarded coconut husk is especially beneficial in the Philippines because garbage collectors don’t want to pick up the material. It’s bulky and they can’t make money hauling it.
    The cost for a kilo of Soilok Charcoal is about 50 cents compared to about $1 for conventional charcoal. Rush says another added benefit of Soilok Charcoal is that 1 kilo will cook about 2.5 kilos of rice. One kilo of conventional charcoal will only cook about 1.5 kilos of rice. Rush says the company producing and marketing Soilok Charcoal in the Phillippines is marketing it to homeowners and they hope to soon be able to produce it in quantity to sell to businesses.
    Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Pacific Enzymes, 1151 West River Lane, Santa Ana, Calif. 92706 (ph 714 867-2512; www.pacificenzymes.com).



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2017 - Volume #41, Issue #2