A fire starting implement in where the fuel source is an unadulterated piece Red Western Cedar Bark is impregnated with a secondary fuel source that acts as an accelerant. The combination of Red Western Cedar with Paraffin wax or other wax based accelerant creates a fire starter that is easily manipulated by hand or by tool. The final product can be split into smaller pieces or be pulled apart and shredded into finer strands. The fire starting implement created from this combination creates a highly weather resistant and versatile fire starter.

This invention relates to solid firelighters of the type which may be used to initiate combustion of i) barbecues (BBQs), irrespective of whether the barbecue fuel is in the form of charcoal lump wood or briquettes, ii) natural wood in outdoor wood fires or iii) any domestic or commercial fires. Firelighters of the present invention comprise: 25 to 75% by weight fiberboard having a density of from 0.1 to 0.5 g/cm.sup.3; and 25 to 75% by weight palm fatty acid distillate; wherein the fiberboard is impregnated with the palm fatty acid distillate.

A biofuel product having constituents selected from the group including fat, oil and/or grease components. A container is formed of a biodegradable material having a multiplicity of openings of a size and shape adapted for allowing the fat, oil and/or grease components to pass through the openings to an interior area of the container. An absorbent capture material is positioned in the container and holds a quantity of the fat, oil and/or grease. The container, capture material and fat, oil and/or grease collectively include the biofuel product.

The present invention concerns an improved process for a process for the treatment of biomass, comprising (a) subjecting biomass to hydrothermal treatment in a hydrothermal reactor by immersing the biomass in a treatment liquid, wherein an effluent drained from step (b) or (c) is used as treatment liquid; (b) draining the liquid from the reactor via a liquid outlet to obtain a liquor and simultaneously or subsequently introducing another washing liquid into the reactor, wherein the washing liquid is pre-heated to a temperature 30? C. below operational temperature of step (a) or higher before being introduced into the reactor, (c) draining the reactor to obtain washed hydrothermally treated biomass and an effluent, wherein at least one of step (a) and (b) is performed at a temperature in the range of 100-250? C. The invention further concerns a solid fuel and a liquor obtained by the process according to the invention, as well as a hydrothermal treatment facility to operate the process according to the invention.

A wax composition can be incorporated into a biomass mixture, such as a woody biomass mixture, for formation of pellets, such as wood fuel pellets. The addition of wax compositions with suitable amounts of n-paraffins relative to the amount of oil-in-wax can result in biomass pellets with improved properties, such as improved durability and/or reduced tendency to uptake moisture during storage. Addition of a suitable wax composition can also allow for formation of biomass pellets with improved properties while also reducing or minimizing the power requirements during pellet formation.

The present invention refers to a method for treating agricultural or forestry or urban origin biomass or mixture of different origin's biomass feedstocks, low quality coal such as peat, lignite or subbituminous or/and bituminous coal, or/and mixtures of them, garbage and urban/industrial wastes, solid and/or liquid state, as well as sewage treatment plant sludges by means of removal of inorganic elements, such as silica, potassium, sodium, chlorine, sulfur, phosphorus, nitrogen and heavy metals such as zinc, mercury, copper, lead, chromium, etc., and the addition of new inorganic elements such as calcium, magnesium, titanium, zirconium, yttrium, aluminum and ammonium, in order to produce a purified and upgraded solid and/or liquid material which can be used as raw material in thermochemical conversion processes such as combustion, flash (t<1 sec)/fast pyrolysis (1<t<10 sec), as well as in the gasification for the production of energy, and/or hydrogen-rich gas and liquid hydrocarbons.

Structured composite wood pellets comprising wood pellets with a coating at least partially covering the wood pellets, where the coating reduces the generation of dust/fines of the wood pellet upon impact and/or abrasion. The coating may comprise crude tall oil, distilled tall oil, tall oil pitch, tall oil fatty acids, tall oil heads, non-food use sustainable wax, or a combination thereof. The coating may be located at the surface and/or subsurface of the wood pellets rather than throughout, and may be applied at a rate of less than 1 wt. % of the wood pellets.

A pipeline transportation method of coal is provided. The coal is pulverized and then subjected to a waterproofing treatment, so that a time needed for precipitating the pulverized coal in water is longer than a time needed for transporting the pulverized coal by flowing water to a destination. The waterproof pulverized coal is transported by water through a pipeline. After reaching the destination, the waterproof pulverized coal can be separated from the water in a static pool, collected by a cyclone separator, and then stored in a warehouse.

The present application provides methods for methods of igniting a fuel source with a lighter fluid composition including fusel oil; self-lighting charcoal briquettes infused with fusel oil, flammable compositions including fusel oil, methods of making flammable compositions including fusel oil, and lighter devices including fusel oil.

A method of capturing and disposing of fats, oil and/or grease is disclosed. The method comprises: providing a porous container formed of a porous fabric; positioning in the porous container an absorbent material capable of absorbing a quantity of fats, oil and grease through the porous fabric of the porous container; placing the container and the absorbent material contained therein in a grease trap comprising a source of fats, oil and/or grease for absorbing the fats, oil and/or grease; removing the porous container of absorbent material and absorbed fat, oil and/or grease from the source of fats, oil and/or grease; removing the absorbent material, fats, oil and/or grease from the removed porous container; and extracting the absorbed fats, oil, and/or grease from the absorbent material.