[Gasification] [Stoves] Natural draft TLUD turn-down

Tue May 20 16:28:45 CDT 2014

Dear Lloyd,

what you require sounds like a possible application for the IntensiFire.

I can't promise you open source or off the shelf, or even the capacity yet
to build what you are after. Probably won't get much biochar either.

What I can offer is super clean combustion (zero CO and possibly zero PM10)
particularly with auger fed fuel to keep combustion in the sweet spot. I
have also built a prototype woodstove that will burn green wood with no
visible smoke.

Kind Regards

Jason
http://www.intensifire.co.nz/

On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 7:14 AM, Lloyd Helferty <lhelferty at sympatico.ca>wrote:

>  Crispin (and all),  [CC; gasification list]
>
>   This is a very interesting conversation regarding ND TLUD power (heat)
> variability and its implications, and (as you know) I do have a keen
> interest in this topic since being introduced to the TLUD 'stove' concept
> back several years ago (by Dr. Anderson, when he came to Ontario to
> demonstrate his small "Champion" stove and similar devices at the Laepple
> farm in June 2009), especially since the TLUD is one of the few simple
> technologies that can produce biochar cleanly at a small (or possibly at a
> medium) scale for local use ~ while producing (hopefully) useful amounts of
> energy (heat).
>
>   What I am working on right now here in Toronto might interest you or
> others on this list.
>  I have been approached by a business in Toronto that would like to be
> able to implement a small-scale char-making technology at their
> manufacturing site in the Toronto area (GTA) that would utilize the (dry)
> 'residuals' from their food production process in order to make heat energy
> that could lower their (fossil) energy use [natural gas costs] while also
> turning their (dry) 'food waste' into a biochar (and/or high-char ash) that
> could be re-integrated back into a (wet) food composting system
> (vermicompost) that is already being implemented onsite at their operations
> here in the city.
>
>  The primary use of the heat would be to heat up water, but it would also
> be welcome if it could be used in the preparation of the 'raw' food
> (drying, roasting certain products to a certain temperature -- i.e. an
> 'oven') that goes into their recipes, which includes 'fair-trade' sourced
> (temperate and tropical) foodstuffs that have been either grown or imported
> into Canada in bulk, and which are prepared on-site (including de-hulling
> etc. of several of the key ingredients).
>   Essentially, this company would like to know if it might be possible to
> come up with either a "customized" or an "off-the-shelf" system that has a
> fairly small footprint (about the size of a shipping pallet<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallet#Dimensions>,
> or ~16 sq. ft = 40" × 48", as commonly used in the food industry) that
> would be able to meet the following requirements:
>
>
>    - Provides space heating and/or hot water heating (for their kitchen),
>    with the possibility also for using the heat for "roasting" their
>    ingredients (@ ~140 Celsius max. -- possibly using a heat exchanger, if
>    necessary).
>    - something flexible and rugged
>    - can accept multiple fuel inputs (different sized feedstocks,
>    different moisture/energy content -- not just woodchips)
>    - no smoky emissions (after-burner, if necessary) so that it can meet
>    local emissions regs
>
>
>   Of course they are interested also in custom of "commercial" gasifiers
> [as well], but small systems (stoves) that could do the job they are
> seeking might suffice, although they probably want the system to be as
> automated (hands off) as possible to that the minimum amount of human
> intervention is required... although it would need to be as low-cost as
> possible (almost a "DIY" system -- they could actually make it themselves
> since they do have some expertise, including a machinist & a "master
> builder" who has built and operated a series of gassifier stoves for
> several years and "who is more than capable of manufacturing" something --
> if they had the 'plans' for an open-source system/design that could do the
> job).
>
>  Ideally this company would be interested in seeing 2 or 3 designs that
> might work for them (a few devices that they could initially assess)... so
> that they could work with the designers to get more details.  They would
> then choose a final design that they would then incorporate into their head
> office (operations), but then possibly also into a "franchise system" that
> they are designing (and that would operate like a "food truck" would in
> *any* city ~ except instead of the truck being electricity or natural gas
> or propane-powered, the 'portable' food production/processing system would
> operate partially off of its own 'waste'... and/or wood chips [or pellets]
> that could be produced or supplied locally ~ possibly even from chipped
> shipping pallets that have *only* transported food products -- i.e.
> clean, 'food-grade' "green waste" like the type that can be found at the
> back of nearly every supermarket in the country... including all the broken
> ones.)
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>   Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
>   Principal, Biochar Consulting (Canada)
>   www.biochar-consulting.ca
>   48 Suncrest Blvd, Thornhill, ON, Canada
>   905-707-8754
>   CELL: 647-886-8754
>      Skype: lloyd.helferty
>   Steering Committee coordinator
>   Canadian Biochar Initiative (CBI)
>   CURRENTS, A working group of Science for Peace
>   http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/currents/
>   President, Co-founder & CBI Liaison, Biochar-Ontario
>   National Office, Canadian Carbon Farming Initiative (CCFI)
>   Organizing team member, 2013 N/A Biochar Symposium:
>     www.carbon-negative.us/symposium
>   Member of the Don Watershed Regeneration Council (DWRC)
>   Manager, Biochar Offsets Group:
>            http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2446475
>    Advisory Committee Member, IBI
>   http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1404717
>   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42237506675
>   http://groups.google.com/group/biochar-ontario
>   http://www.meetup.com/biocharontario/
>   http://www.biocharontario.ca
>    www.biochar.ca
>
> "Producing twice as much food with diminishing resources, without further loss of natural habitats and biodiversity and in a changing climate may be the greatest challenge facing humanity."
>    - Lloyd Helferty
>
> On 2014-05-19 7:38 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:
>
>  Dear Roberto
>
>  I agree with your analysis. There is a lot of merit in keeping the
> secondary flame in close proximity to the top of the fuel bed. The most
> important is that the secondary flame is harder to put out with a slight
> breeze (because it relights). The second is that when the primary air is
> turned down to control the power, the secondary flame is able to remain hot
> enough to stay alight. Combined with external, down-drafting secondary air
> preheating (not like the Peko Pe) one can maintain the secondary air feed
> ration under different primary air conditions.
>
>  Read and heed! TLUD's are not succeeding in meeting the turndown ratios
> required by ordinary cooking. To burn clean at different burn rates,
> whatever the fuel, you have to control both the primary and secondary air
> flows.
>
>  While a 'double controller' can work, turning the secondary air down at
> exactly the same time as the primary leads to a 2-3 minute period of very
> high PM and or CO and VOC's because of the retained heat in the fuel bed
> and stove body. This is worse if the combustion chamber is ceramic or cast
> iron.
>
>  If the secondary air feed it an automatic, buoyancy-driven ‎supply, it
> will draw in additional air as required during the cooling-off period. This
> explains the strange layout of the air supply in a Vesto Stove which tried
> to address the problems inherent in David Hancock's (very advanced at the
> time) 1984 Tsotso Stove (which is still in production).
>
>  Regards
>  Crispin in Seoul enjoying spring
>
> <snip>
>
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