[Stoves] Drawing down the dung pile

[psanders at ilstu.edu]

Dear Crispin, Kevin, Frank and all,

I have read the later responses, and I like the "washing", but only if  
it is clearly shown that a type of dung (each type to be considered  
separately) does emit "bad stuff" if not washed.  Or wash it if  
nutient value for plants is shown to make it worthwhile.

Otherwise, the extra work (and water that might not be plentiful)  
could make dung fuel to be too much trouble to be well utilized widely.

Washed or not, I like dung fuel, have used it a little in India, and  
would like to be part of the team.

In case you couldn't guess, my interest is in using dung fuel in TLUDs  
(of various designs).   Because TLUDs need "chunky dry biomass", I  
will work on having appropriate sizes.  Here are some initial thoughts:

1.  Llama dung is the right size, as is the size from sheep and some  
other animals.  "Correct size" dung should not be washed (unless shown  
to be with undesirable emissions.  And that refers to the emissions  
from TLUDs that have great abilities for nearly eliminating CO and PM.  
  But does the other "bad stuff" get through the TLUD fire?  Not yet  
studied, as far as I know.

2.  Llamas have the nice habit of pooping in just a few locations.   
Easy to collect it.  And it is already in use widely in the high Andes  
mountains area.  And llamas as "luxury animals" or pets or for fine  
hair fibers are now found in the Affluent societies, so there is  
moderate access to the dung for experimental purposes.

3.  For TLUDs. in India we made dung tablets.  Could work also with  
washed dung, maybe even better if washed.  And it can be mixed with  
sawdust or rice husks or other small-particle biomass that could even  
be wet/green because the tablets need to be dried.  The dung (or  
mixture) is spread out on a firm flat surface (board, cement, asphalt,  
whatever) about 1 to 3 cm thick.  While wet, it is "scored" or  
imprinted with the edge of a piece of metal (like a license plate) or  
wood form.  The imprints are parallel and about 3 to 6 cm apart, and  
then again imprinted perpendicular to the first lines.  When the dung  
is dry, the tablets hang together in pieces with 4 to 8 tablets  
together.  Can be turned with a spatula (a large one) for drying on  
the bottom.  When fully dried, they are placed into bags or boxes.   
the user finishes breaking them into the individual tablets when  
placing the fuel into the TLUD (or other stove.).

So, let's have an outline of a plan of actions.  Do it on the Stoves  
Listserv in case we can attract a few more participants.

Paul  "Dr. TLUD"
Proud to be working with "Captain Dung" or what was Kevin's name?





Quoting Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at gmail.com>:

> Dear Burners of Recycled Biomass
>
>
>
> We took delivery today of three (barely) steaming bags of goat and cattle
> dung with a view to starting to look for ways to burn it cleanly in space
> heating stoves.
>
>
>
> If there is interest from anyone in cooperating (by making stoves and trying
> them) we should start a thread here, preferably.
>
>
>
> I have already heard from a couple of people and Prof Lodoysamba is
> particularly interested. He says there are large amounts of goat dung which
> is normally not burned by nomads, though cattle dung is. Probably the reason
> is that no one has made a stove tuned to consume Capra Crap. Well, let's put
> that omission behind us!
>
> We can call it the Crapra Stove Project - an international effort to turn
> steaming pellets into steaming pullets.
>
>
>
> The focus will be on North Asia because that seems to be where the current
> interest is.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Crispin
>
>
>
>
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>
>



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