Acorns as fuel

[Dave]

I stumbled across something very interesting while looking for edible uses of acorns - it appears they are high in oil and therefore could be a potential source of bio-diesel!

The thing is I have zero equipment to do any tests on them, so this is a plea really, does anyone have access to an oil press? Or would anyone like to experiment and let me know what happens.

I've only found one reference to someone trying http://www.biofuelsforum.com/making_bio ... rns-2.html but he appears to have given up - plus he was trying in May when I presume most of the oil has dried out over the winter.
So who wants to be the inventor of the world most environmentally friendly fuel - Acorn bio-diesel?

Follow this link http://article.pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/RPAS ... 53-151.pdf for a paper on the oil content of acorns.

[mrsflibble]

no access to an poil press, but i have plenty of acorns.

[Dave]

Well that's one half of the problem sorted - I've just emailed an oil-pressing company to see if anyone has done this before and if its feasible, I'll let you know what they say.
It would be good if someone on this forum can do it first, but that's just vanity on my part

[dave45]

or you could just use them in your wood-burner :-)

I'd imagine you'd have problems producing acorns on an industrial scale anyway.

[contadina]

A shovel full on the wood burner keeps it ticking overnight.

[Dave]

Got a rely very quickly from the oil pressing guy (see below), not sure I like what he's referring to with the 'choose another nut' but I think I can take that on the chin. So it might be possible with hexane extraction or a high oil acorn variety.

"Hi Dave, If I have read the article right there is only 4.6% oil in an acorn. This is far too low to press out mechanically. It seems they used solvent extraction, not something I'm able to do I'm afraid.

Choose another nut!!"

[grahoom]

Got a rely very quickly from the oil pressing guy (see below), not sure I like what he's referring to with the 'choose another nut' but I think I can take that on the chin. So it might be possible with hexane extraction or a high oil acorn variety.

"Hi Dave, If I have read the article right there is only 4.6% oil in an acorn. This is far too low to press out mechanically. It seems they used solvent extraction, not something I'm able to do I'm afraid.

Choose another nut!!"

beech nuts - they have higher oil content that acorns...

[Millymollymandy]

ha ha, I thought he was referring to himself as a nutter!

[Splottlings]

With regards to using acorns (or other nuts) as woodburner fuel, do you need to dry them out first or can one use them fresh and does anyone know which are the best to use?

[contadino]

No nut that I know of will burn at all fresh. You need to dry them first. However, as the wife says, a shovel of dry acorns on the embers last thing before bed, and they fire will still be burning in the morning.

[Splottlings]

Cool thanks, will get collecting and drying.

New woodburner in last weekend so we're discovering the delights of cooking stews and what woods burn best, had never heard of the acorn trick before so look forward to trying it out and the joy of it still happily embering away the next morning.

[Millymollymandy]

They'd just fall through the grill of mine so no good, shame cos I've got millions of acorns. Not that I want to go out collecting them because that would take a month of Sundays!

[contadina]

They'd just fall through the grill of mine so no good, shame cos I've got millions of acorns. Not that I want to go out collecting them because that would take a month of Sundays!

The ones we use are ginormous, it's bizarre as the trees are more like shrubs, yet they produce acorns at least twice the size of the ones that a giant oak would produce. Collecting them takes no time at all. Find a tree, look down and discover a carpet of acorns.

[Millymollymandy]

I wonder what kind of oak that is? I just have the bog standard ones. I might just collect a few and dry them to try it out though and shove them in the back of the burner away from the grill. They don't explode do they like chestnuts?

[contadino]

They'd just fall through the grill of mine so no good, shame cos I've got millions of acorns. Not that I want to go out collecting them because that would take a month of Sundays!

The ones we use are ginormous, it's bizarre as the trees are more like shrubs, yet they produce acorns at least twice the size of the ones that a giant oak would produce. Collecting them takes no time at all. Find a tree, look down and discover a carpet of acorns.

I think a little bit of confusion has crept in there. The oaks that produce the massive nuts are big trees (I don't know the strain, but they're called Querca in Italian) - the little oak bushes are holm oaks (and they produce normal-sized nuts.)