The Economics

Dekh tujhe phir se samjhata hoon. Even at 5 rs average of wood cost (this is higher than what it will cost me eventually. The cost will go down with reduced pricing using sugarcane, free carbon sources etc), it will cost me about 20 rs wood considering 25 percent yield with potash. 

Also using flue gases for activation which will be free. 

Precursor costs: 20 rs

Heating: 10 rs. 

Labor: 10 rs.  

Packaging, marketing, other admin: 10 rs.  

Washing: 2 rs. 

Electricity: 2 rs. 

Capital cost: 2 rs.

Depreciation cost: 2 rs. 

Net cost: abt 58 rs.

Add a buffer of 10-15 rs to cover anything else like spillage, damage, or anything ignored etc. Net max cost: 68-73 rs. Say average 65 rs. It should cost me less if I run a very tight ship. This is for granular. Powdered will have almost free carbon sources. So cost will be lower. Powdered should have less than 50. I have ignored my involvement cost. Have also ignored space costs. Heating costs should also be lower. With some scale, other costs will also reduce.

Old bamboo will cost about 1-2 rs kg. So precursor cost will be about 5 rs. So even granular can be done around 50-60. 

 

Lower capital and depreciation costs at the expense of higher labour costs. Some costs could be less than estimated. 

Costs could be more if I have significantly underestimated something. Heating costs can be higher in steam activation. The solar heater reduces steam costs.Steam heating costs may vary depending on how much  exothermic energy is generated from internal reactions. Yield will also be lower with steam.  For me, steam is the least preferable mode. Not much pricing power because will be competing with everyone else in steam activated carbon segment. Fewer players in the chemical activation segment. 

Activation costs negated by potash and flue gases (and potentially Co2 from calcination). Any potash and wood ash costs offset by selling washed ashes. Wood heating and ash generated to offset the heating cost.  Bhayanak waala insulation laga ke heating cost control karoonga. 

For potash, some cost can come from calcium hydroxide  (if we get more carbonates in ash. although some of it offset by recovered calcium carbonate. Or concentrate the potash and heat it to remove CO2 as a probably lower cost solution). 

For powdered activated carbon, raw material sourcing will be significantly cheaper. It should be almost free. 

If I go the self activation route using free carbon sources, it should cost me a lot less. Around 50. Because heat is not lost from the gases, and there is no cost of activating agent. The surface area achieved is also quite high. But wood vinegar will probably be lost. Still best way to make activated carbon. Free carbon sources can be better handled this way. 

Modes (descending order of preference/profitability) . This order might change. 

1. One step chemical potash activation - high level of synergies in the whole process. Overall ease and significantly lower costs. Highly profitable. Reduces tar, improves wood vinegar quality, improves char yield.  Doping with ammoia gas to improve results further. Perhaps the best possible scenario.

2. Flue gas activation followed by potash reactivation or both together

3. Self activation

4. Two step chemical potash activation

5. One step flue gases activation

6. One step steam activation

In all two step reactions, carbon can be modified by impregnation etc. Also mix some depotashed wood ash in two step. Two step may be better for application specific purposes. More customisations can be done. 

High iodine value will be better because steam won't give high iodine value. 1000-1200 iodine numbers can be reached with steam but higher may be difficult. The yield reduces significantly and ash and mesoporosity will increase.

A lot of market waalas are selling lower iv products and claiming as higher iv. This will not be our case, so can charge a premium. 

Granulated (Iv 1100+) sells for about 180-200 in semi-wholesale. 1200, 40 kg powdered bag selling for 188 per kg. 1100 also selling for 232 per kg for 25 kg bag. 1100, 25 kg bag selling for 200+.298 selling 1 kg bamboo activated charcoal. But a lot of it could be game price.  superactivated 1300+ should fetch higher. 

The real game will be in niche markets. Prepared specifically for the application. Here the small scale and resulting flexibility come into play. Can easily handle niches. Profits should increase substantially. Niche market of metal adsorbing carbons I am targetting. Should fetch substantially high prices. Whole process is aligned for this. 

Supercapacitor grade activated carbon is selling for $15 a kg. Just imagine. This is the real game. Nothing beats it. And potash is the key here.  The free potash my friend. The edge. Bamboo with potash. But will be done later.  

1200+ can probably be achieved by approx 1.5 koh ratio with bamboo. Reactivating the ones activated using flue gases should require lower ratio. Even with simple activation of bamboo with 1:2, I should get 1300+. A paper got 1500 for 1:2 using a different precursor. Bamboo should be a better precursor. PhysioChemical mei to kam hi ratio mei ho jaayega. Dip in potash and use an oxidizing gas. 2894 ka surface area aa raha hai one step mei with koh. Ab soch kitne mei bikega woh. Gaand phat jaayegi 2894 kisi tarah laane mei aur padega bahut mehenga. Mera lagbhag free. 

These are rough prices. I should realise more value than just the cost of raw materials (including activating agent). Prices will be accordingly. 

So 1100+ (and higher values) is the goal with potash. Rather than wasting potash on 900-1000 (achievable by physical activation), go for 1100+ (difficult by physical activation alone). This is a better business model. Moreover, a lot of charcoal comes free with the ashes. On a daily basis if I collect 500 kg of ashes, 40-50 kgs of charcoal will come free with it. These edges will meet a lot of expenses. All this is possible because I found an unbeatable edge.  

If I make products like bamboo bags, then it fetches much more. Some will be sold via retail. Subscriptions can be done. This improves my margins considerably. 

I can just make superactivated carbon to keep my margins high and low turnover. So I can avoid  coming under GST. Ab samjha game kitna bada hai. Tu kuch naa hi bol to accha hai.

Dekh positional play karke, kaise tactical play khel liya. Yahi hota hai strong positional play ka advantage. 

This thing itself should fetch me around 75k-1 lac per month. Now add wood vinegar in the mix. More benefit than activated charcoal. You can't understand it now. Will take a few months to demonstrate the importance of wood vinegar revenue. This will be more profitable than activated carbon. I can assure you that. Wood vinegar is considered a high value added product.

I also get to adjust any surplus GST. Agar maine gst nahi liya low turnover ke kaaran to customer ko cheaper padega. Mera high margin aur low volume ho jaayega. Input gst waise hi nahi chahiye, to phir customer ko hi benefit pass kar do. Ab jo gst lega, usse to pehle customer mere ko prefer karega.

 And I don't have to do much. Just set the process and oversee it. Thoda to time lagega hi set karne mei. 

2-2.5 lac rs monthly kahin nahi gaye. Baith ke aane hain. Koi bahut lamba chauda kaam nahi hai but bachelor ke liye livable income hai. 

Bol high margin, low turnover kaam karke GST avoid kar loon apne product pe? Saara superactivated stuff.  Itna to market mil hi jaayega superactivated carbon ka. 60  percent+ margin hoga usme. 40 lakh ke turnover pe 24 lakh mere aur koi gst nahi. Income tax to mai bacha hi loonga. Leasing business with 60 percent depreciation of assets waala khol doonga. Uska return kabhi kabhi loonga depending on tax status. saara business expense company bear karegi. Flat mera business rent karegi. Car business degi.food business degi as most of my hours will be working hours. Saare expenses wahin se nikal aayenge. Last mei basic exemption under limit aa jaonga. Phir last mei capital gains ki kuch chutiyapanti aur mai free. Minimal income tax dena hoga. Sab legal hai. Koi tax ki chori nahi. 

 Woh bhi 2-3 company bana doonga. 18 percent rate kam padega mera product automatically customer ko. I can sell much more than competitors. I will dominate this market. No one can compete with me. Chinese bhi nahi. 

I guess small to medium scale units at multiple places are better than one large scale unit. One major factor is ash collection and selling. Other is availability of low cost raw material. Some innovations in processing equipments will be required to suit small to medium setups.

Very profitable at least on paper. Real world ka dekhna hoga. Mai jindagi bhar aaram se chala sakta hoon.

Tujhe kuch nahi de raha. Tu Jaa. Mai khud kar loonga. Mere ko theek lag raha hai overall. Meri jindagi chal jaayegi isme.