[GSBN] Help us help in Haiti

[Bill Christensen]

At 1:46 PM -0800 1/2/11, Bruce King wrote:
>Happy New Year, baleheads.
>
>We have a lot of soil in Haiti that is rich in both clay and silt.  
>Easy enough to separate the sand and gravel, but we haven't figured 
>out a good way to separate silt from clay.  So far we've tried:
>
>1) Asking nicely
>2) Offering every silt particle a chance to win a Hawaiian dream 
>vacation if it separates itself from the clay
>3) Telling the silt that if it just leaves quietly now, no one will get hurt
>and, getting really hardball,
>4) Hanging a few "example particles" of silt by their silica 
>crystals in the public square, with warning notes attached.
>
>Still no luck!  Anyone have a good low-tech field method for separation?


A couple of possibly good suggestions at 
<http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/16841/How-to-separate-clay-silt-and-sand-from-heavy-clay-subsoil> 
include both water separation methods and dry separation (essentially 
winnowing).

A third suggests speeding the water separation using 
electrocoagulation (see 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocoagulation>.   You'd need to 
research how much electricity would be needed, but it might be 
possible with solar.

A lot of it hinges on the availability of time and/or labor.
-- 
Bill Christensen
<http://greenbuilder.com/contact/>

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