Walnut Shell Media -natural nontoxic annually renewable resource

If anyone has horses, make sure and do not use it where they will be, or if horses will be in the area afterward make sure and clean it out.

At least the black walnuts (that grow in our area), even the 'sawdust', can kill horses with unusually small amounts. For equine it is very dangerous. We have a pasture to take care of and are about to have several trees harvested to reduce the exposure to horses. Growing in the area is not the problem for horses, ingesting the oils are.

Walnut shells I have heard of being used as a good abrasive (like in sand blasting), and like pecan and peanut hulls, used in the oil industry to be sent down a well when used in fracturing rock (fracking) to get more oil out. They put an explosive down the well with the hulls, set off the explosive, fracture the rock and it 'pushes' the shell fragments into the fissures in the rock to allow more oil to be retrieved.

Good answer. You are certainly correct about the hazzards of black walnuts. We too have horses on our farm and understand this. The walnuts we have in bulk are English walnuts and are used extensively in the equine industry. English walnuts are also very useful as a landscaping ground cover and in children's playground areas. Engish walnuts are non-toxic. We have in years past used black walnuts (the outside covering) from our farm to make a solution to eliminate parasites from the stomach. The English walnut by contrast is used as a filler in livestock feed.

Yes you are certainly correct about the abrasive attributes of Engish walnuts. This is a perfect media for blast cleaning and polishing soft metals, precious stones, aluminum engine parts, mould, armature etc etc. Several of our customers use English walnut media in cosmetic soaps and scrubs as a soft exfoliate. Another intersting use is as an ingredient to the paint use in the non-skid surface of aircraft carriers. English walnut flour however has very little abrasion and is used to polish eye glass lens and jewelry.

I am familiar with the oil drilling industry application. They referr to this as oil well production stimulation. There is another use in the oil fields where English walnuts are used as a lost circulation material. I do not know enough about this to comment any further.

Thank you for your comment

How about as a source for charcoal for filtering media? I'm not sure it will work, or even if it's already being done, but crushed walnut shells should be close in size to charcoal particles used for filtering.

Good idea - they should make excellent charcoal for barbecues or other smokeless fuels. I can give you a plant layout design to make briquettes. This was & probably still is, used for apricot, peach and prune kernels. With a bit of extra care, activated carbon could also be produced - good for water purification, sugar refining & similar.

One excellent use is as plastic filler especially for Phenol-formaldehyde bottle tops. The hard shell powder is first rate.

Greetings,

I would be interested in the plant layout design to make briquettes. Is this something that can be emailed? If so you could send it to sales@pureandsimpleways.com

Your response was excellent.

Yes, it can be used to make activated carbon for filteration purposes. In India we have used coconut shell for this purpose and walnut shell should be as good, I believe

vshwn7@aol.com

Research in Turkey has shown that walnut shells are effective in removing heavy metals from water. Perhaps you can try approaching some of the filter manufacturers.

A couple of years ago while on vacation I stopped at a discount outlet in NC (JR's at exit ninety something on I-95 ) They had all kinds of cheap little statues, paperweights and other crap by the thousands. They were all made from a mix of ground pecan shells and a plastic resin and were touted as being more natural and a "greener" solution than all plastic. Did we buy any? NO. I wonder if your shells could be used with a resin for manufacturing things such as boards for decking (similar to Trex ) and for the other plastic stuff we currently make from recycled soft drink bottles such as parking lot curbs and park type benches. This stuff actually had a nice look about it - sort of like carved wood in both color and texture. Ed

Another good idea - if commercially viable. There is a process for making artificial wood by using a mixture of recycled paper and plastic. The paper does give a fibrous nature but you get a rot-free substitute timber. Nut shells would make a much harder material.

Polyester could also be used - the normal GRP layup resin should be ok - this would give paperweights & door stops and also such things as statues & garden gnomes (god forbid!). It would also make a good filler for low tech glassfiber castings - eg plantpots and the like.

We used it years ago to clean gas turbines while running, to save the cost of dismantling. Cleaned all revolving and fixed parts in the air path like new.....

US Filter, walnut shell filter Try this search. They have been using crushed and graded walnut shell media for years for oil removal in a moving bed filter.

Hello Pure and Simple:,

I came to this rather late and there is some excellent posts.

It has to be the filter system, though whether you could make your own for domestic use I am not sure. I would have thought the oil industry had the supplies they need pretty much tied up?

Decking sounds good. Perhaps mixed with other fibres to make a very stiff and hard MDF?

Maybe used after highly compressed manufacture, for shingles? Or 'Tiles'?

Broken roughly and mixed with cement and agregate to make preformed paving or non-load carrying garden wall bricks, or a similar thing to the concrete panels but in walnut? People will be going down their garden to Polish the fence! ..........(Have you seen my new walnut fence)?

I can imagine there is a whole lot of shells waiting to find a use for, as there is more shell than nut?

Good luck anyway.......

Take care and have a happy holiday..................

Hello,

My name is David Charlson and I am the Sales/Business Development representative for Eco-Shell. We are the premier producer of pure Walnut Shell in Northern California.

We supply our Walnut Shell media to ditributors all over the world.

Our web site www.ecoshell.com will provide you with the information you are looking for.

Feel free to call me as well at 530-567-5019.

Activated Carbon is one area we can discuss as well as many other possible uses.

Sincerely,

David Charlson

I found these from a website: As a lost circulation material, walnut shells are especially adapted for plugging induced fractures. Walnut shells are also used to reduce the drag of drill pipe and drill collars, especially in high angle holes. Walnut shells are used as a sweep to scour the well bore and tools when sticking clay is a problem.

Sadly I don't know much about the industrial applications of walnut shells. However, I do know it's kind of a Chinese traditional medicine, which can be boiled to treat pharyngitis and gastritis.