Biofuel from sweet chestnut

[jivah]

Hi,

Wondering if I can get some ideas for making biofuel from sweet chestnuts. I have a plot of land with several hundred sweet chestnut trees which produce far more crop than I can eat or sell and I have been trying to find out if I can make biofuel out of them.

The nuts are very high in carbohydrates and I have them in huge quantities but am not sure about how to process them.I have tried to find out information specific to these nuts but have not come across anything useful so far.

What I am trying to find out is do I have to treat them in some way, or use some kind of enzyme on them. I am reasonably practical so I don't think I will have a problem with the distillation process, it's the brewing part of it I am not sure about.

Any advice most welcome.

Cheers

[Tony From West Oz]

Re: Biofuel from sweet chestnut

You will need to have the nut analysed to identify the oil, the sugars and other carbohydrate content.

From this information you can work out whether it is better to press for the oil or to ferment for making alcohol.

Regards,
Tony

[gilfish]

Re: Biofuel from sweet chestnut

Export them to Australia $7.98 au per kilo at woolies I luv em.

[SUZUDDIS]

Re: Biofuel from sweet chestnut

I was going to say dry them and sell at the local markets. you will make more money that way.
also please don't export them and ruin a local industry in South Australia.

Gilfish , go visit Quentin at the bio dynamic farm in the Adelaide hills. you will find all the chestnuts you have been looking for.

michael

[gilfish]

Re: Biofuel from sweet chestnut

More a tongue in cheek suggestion micheal never really considered he could transport and sell them for $7.98 a kilo, I buy local where i can but am not averse to going overseas if i feel i am being shafted, recent example I did a complete rebuild (except crankshaft) of my yammy 90 HP aeto outboard all genuine yammy bits price at the two local state yammy dealers $4200 parts in america with postage it cost me $1800 approx 300-400 was postage. sorry but i went offshore.

[SUZUDDIS]

Re: Biofuel from sweet chestnut

I would be a lier if I said I hadn't done the same.

simple government greed.
sorry i digressed. eat the chestnuts. you will get more enjoyment from them.
I imagine processing this much chestnut would require alot of energy for a small gain.

good luck

michael

[WesleyB]

Re: Biofuel from sweet chestnut

I made biodiesel from acorns. It worked. I used acetone solvent extraction to remove the oil from nut pulp. Then proceeded to make the biodiesel from the vegetable oil in pretty much the usual manner. There's an old thread on this forum about it. I don't know how much oil is in chestnuts. Might be a fun experiment, at least to do it on a small scale. The way I made biodiesel from acorns was not really cost effective, a lot of room for improvement. Like reusing the solvent to extract the oil.