this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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Dry dung has been used as fuel since forever. Usually not as charcoal though, and Cody shows why - low density, lots of ash, lots of carbon being lost to the air. (See: flammable smoke)
TIL
The issue isn't the smoke itself, but the flammability of the gas output - it means that you're losing hydrocarbons that could be burned for energy. And odds are that the manure in the retort part is also doing it.
This inefficiency is actually a big deal, since people use dung as a fuel mostly when they don't have access to something else to burn.