[GSBN] Help us help in Haiti

Tue Jan 4 21:19:11 UTC 2011

One more time, and one more piece of info.

Each trough can yield appox. 400lbs of processed material.

T

On 1/4/11 11:54 AM, "Tracy Thieriot" <tactileinteriors at hughes.net> wrote:

> Bruce,
> 
> This is great  when will the plasters be applied?  Any option of letting
> large mixes sit and compost?
> 
> Here are two versions I¹ve used to process large quantities of raw materials.
> 
> 1) A large wooden trough with a sheet laid in and overlapping the edges
> clamped to top of box, slightly tilted.  Lay a 2¹x2; or so window mesh screen,
> ideally framed, on the uphill  corner.  We used a small imer mixer to break
> down and suspend the clay and silt with a lot of water then poured it off
> through the screen.  If any material did not break all the way down we would
> add more water and pour it off a second or third time.  The screen acted as an
> initial catch for the silt  most of the particles were larger than the clay.
> Fill the trough to the top.  Water gets whicked down into the earth through
> the sheet and when the particles settle roll the lower corner of the sheet
> back and under the top clear water and drain it off.  At that point you will
> have material that is thick and ready to be mixed with other materials and/or
> layers of clay and silt that can be more easily separated.
> 
> Using this same set up you can set up multiple troughs either next to each
> other and acting individually or stage to overlap at the corners or end with
> spillways.
> 
> 2) This is a modified system a la Nadir Kahlili:  I think he actually wrote
> this up in one of his books, maybe the ceramic houses book...?  This is a
> lower tech system digging large troughs in the ground and using them both as
> the mixing ground and settling ponds.  Basically dig a series of troughs with
> a slight slope and at the connecting wall(s) cut a channel and put in a board
> or block to keep closed.  Mix the earth in  a lot of water and let sit to let
> the water do part or the work of breaking down the dirt.  Remix with feet,
> shovels, hoes etc and add water as needed to create a very thin consistency.
> As the particles settle open the channel and let the lightest, longest
> suspended particles (hopefully your clay) flow into the second trough.
> Repeating to fill the lower troughs with clay.  The last trough can also be
> the mixing plaster trough.
> 
> The channel could also be fitted with a screen.  If your silt is terribly
> small consider doubling up the screening material.
> 
> Feel free to call for clarifications I¹m finding with the second babe in arms
> the mama brain is not always articulate as intended.
> 
> Best to you and thank you all for the work you are doing in Haiti.
> 
> Tracy
> 
> 
> On 1/4/11 8:09 AM, "Bruce King" <bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>  
>> Thanks to all who have replied.  Tim Owen-Kennedy (with whom I'm working in
>> Haiti) advises a good settling pond left to dry, then pull off the surface
>> clay chips that curl into the distinctive pattern.  Makes sense, but takes a
>> lot of time, especially in the rainy tropics.
>> 
>> What I've seen and heard so far essentially describes extensive settling, by
>> gravity or machine, to separate the tiny silt particles from the teensy
>> weensy clay particles.  I guess I could imagine two or three adjacent
>> settling ponds on successfully lower grades, such that you could siphon the
>> surface stuff from the first into the second, then again to the third, thus
>> getting finer and finer particle sizes.
>> 
>> To answer Derek's questions:  we'll be dealing with hundreds of pounds at a
>> time, no machinery of any sort other than human powered.  Soils around Haiti,
>> as everywhere, vary, and we're not trying to quantify particle gradations.
>> We just want a robust system that anyone can use to "improve" a particular
>> soil to the point where it will pass the ribbon or ball tests.
>> 
>> That's our challenge.  All your help and comments are very much appreciated.
>> 
>> Bruce King, PE
>> Director of EBNet
>> Ecological Building Network
>> the art and science of building well
>> bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org
>> PO Box 6397
>> San Rafael, CA 94903 USA
>> (415) 987-7271
>> follow us on Twitter: @EBNetwork
>>  
>> 
>> On Jan 3, 2011, at 12:46 PM, Derek Roff wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi, Bruce,
>>> 
>>> I appreciate your humor, and your New Year's salutations.  Sign me up for
>>> the Hawaii Silt Vacation Sweepstakes.
>>> 
>>> Can you say more about the volume and efficiency that you need in the
>>> system?  That would help us propose ideas that would be useful to you.  For
>>> example, are you trying to process a hundred pounds of soil, a thousand, or
>>> ten thousand per day?
>>> 
>>> What amount of "waste" soil is acceptable.  I'm guessing that your goal is
>>> to get at the clay, and that the silt will be a unimportant byproduct.  Is
>>> that correct?  In wondering about efficiency, I'm thinking along these
>>> lines:  If the soil is naturally 20% clay and 30% silt, then the optimum
>>> system would extract 2 pounds of clay from each ten pounds of soil.  What if
>>> you could only extract 1 pound of clay from each ten pounds, but you got
>>> pretty good purity of that clay.  Would that be acceptable?  Alternatively,
>>> what if a process gave you 4 pounds of product from each 10 pounds of soil,
>>> but that product was 50% clay?  Would that be useful?  If not, what sort of
>>> purity percentage would be worthwhile?
>>> 
>>> Does this process need to be human-powered, or could electrical or gasoline
>>> motors be a part of the machinery?  What is your "easy enough" process for
>>> separating the sand and gravel?  Perhaps the clay separation process could
>>> be added to the sand/gravel separation phase.
>>> 
>>> I have some ideas, and have done some small-scale tests, but I'm not sure
>>> they would fit your needs.
>>> 
>>> Dere-"particulate"-lict
>>> 
>>> Derek Roff
>>> Language Learning Center
>>> Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
>>> University of New Mexico
>>> Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
>>> 505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
>>> Internet: derek at unm.edu
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --On Sunday, January 2, 2011 1:46 PM -0800 Bruce King
>>> <bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org> 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?
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> 
>>>> Bruce "Hang 'em High!" King
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Derek Roff
>>> Language Learning Center
>>> Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
>>> University of New Mexico
>>> Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
>>> 505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
>>> Internet: derek at unm.edu
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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