[Stoves] Jatropha and its future

Wed Aug 10 15:59:51 CDT 2011

Hi All,
Since the topic of jatropha came up I have been wondering a little about
it's use with stoves. Everything I have seen about stoves and jatropha so
far does not cover this. Maybe you all can help me answer these questions:

1. Jatropha is poisonous right? How is this being mitigated in the
processing of the seed (making press cakes, oil extraction)?
2. During combustion how is the poison altered?
3. What studies have been done showing that there is no harmful poison being
transferred while cooking?

Thanks!

Christina Espinosa
University of the Pacific '10
School of International Studies
c_espinosa1 at u.pacific.edu

On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 1:14 PM, Jan Bianchi <janbianchi at comcast.net> wrote:

> ** ** ** ** ** **
>
> Ron****
>
> ** **
>
> Thank you for your questions about the Jiko Safi, the jatropha seed stove
> that Jet City StoveWorks is currently testing.  I apologize for the delay in
> response, but I had to pass the questions on to our developers as I am not
> technically competent to answer all of them.****
>
> ** **
>
> *Why use jatropha in the Jiko Safi? Why whole seed?* ****
>
> ** **
>
> Frankly, we got involved in developing a jatropha seed stove because it
> hadn’t been successfully done.  Past efforts resulted in a very fast, smoky
> burn.   Jonathan Otto, who has been working in **East Africa** with
> farmers engaged in jatropha production, knew about the past failures and
> jatropha’s abundance there and urged us to try.   One of our developers,
> Dave Covert, is an emeritus research professor in Atmospheric Sciences from
> the **University** of **Washington** and the other, David Otto, is a
> contractor/ tinkerer extraordinaire in ****Seattle****.  They had not
> traditionally been “stovers,” but they are now.****
>
> ** **
>
> As you know, jatropha is a very common tropical and sub-tropical non-food
> plant with high energy content, available from **Haiti** to **Bhutan** to
> ****Indonesia****. It can be easily cultivated as a hedge row and on land
> not suitable for other crops. In many areas of the world we have reached
> 'Peak Wood." Things will not change for the better as population expands.
> One estimate suggests less than 4% of the jatropha seed is harvested.   We
> believe this largely unused rural energy source has potential as an
> alternative to tree burning stoves, both charcoal and wood.  We believe that
> “there is no food security without fuel security” and jatropha can be a
> secure fuel.  Our hope is to make the alternative stove available to the
> people who are now walking for hours past jatropha on their way to a
> diminishing supply of trees.  We expect that eventually jatropha seed will
> also be available on the street corners in villages and urban areas just as
> the much more expensive charcoal and kerosene are now.****
>
>  ****
>
> In several places around the world, there are experiments going on with
> jatropha seed cake and rice hull blends where seed is purchased from the
> farmer then transported to a center with the electricity necessary to
> run three machines: an extractor that removes about 95% of the oil, a hammer
> mill processes the seed cake with the rice hulls and other ingredients, and
> a pelletizer to form the material in a way it can be burned.  Finally the
> pellets are transported back to the farmer/cook. This approach to using
> jatropha could prove to work well in areas that have the machinery and the
> electricity. ****
>
> ** **
>
> In the meantime, Jet City StoveWorks is focusing on a whole seed as a fuel
> for its simplicity, availability and very small carbon footprint as well as
> putting the farmer/ cook in charge of her fuel.  It is a natural pellet
> stove.****
>
>  ****
>
> *How did this stove come to have a central air duct, a chimney, no port
> adjustment equipment, the amount of secondary air holes etc.?*****
>
> We started with several specific goals: ****
>
> (1)   The stove was specific to jatropha with its high energy content.
> Other seeds with high oil content may work: castor, croton and sunflower
> seeds come to mind, though some have competing uses.  We will be testing
> them in time. ****
>
> (2)   The stove must be direct, intuitive and simple to use, requiring only
> a demonstration of how to light a TLUD stove. ****
>
> (3)   The stove will operate with natural draft: without fan if possible
> and without moving parts--the bane of all machines in developing areas.***
> *
>
> (4)  The stove must be designed to have the lowest possible emissions and
> remove whatever pollution that is created away from the cook and her family.
> ****
>
> (5)   The stove must be durable and long lasting. ****
>
> (6)   The stove's truly important field test is its success in meeting the
> cook's needs as she prepares daily meals because only then will it be used.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> The stove evolved over the past twelve months to its current form. Starting
> with TLUD principles (e.g. seeking the correct balance of primary and
> secondary air,  thank you Paul Anderson), we then made rough calculations of
> the energy captured in the seed and started building and modifying in a
> typical iterative process. Typical stove designs all had too much primary
> air and often a promising design would work well in some respect but not
> all.  For example, we had one model that would boil water like crazy but the
> temperature just above the fuel was over 1100 C.  When the central air duct
> was added in a week long testing at the wonderful facility at CREEC in ***
> *Uganda****, the opposing secondary air currents brought the turbulent
> flame down to a flat, reliable pattern.  We are experimenting with an
> adjustment that allows the primary air to be shut off at the end of a burn
> to cut off the smoke that usually occurs at that point.  We are currently
> doing pollution testing, advocate open source principles and so will be
> posting information at our new web site which is currently under
> construction.  http//jetcitystoveworks.com  ****
>
> ** **
>
> The Jiko Safi is currently being manufactured by metal workers in ****
> Arusha**, **Tanzania****, who we have assisted in the financing of the
> tools and jigs necessary to produce the stove within the tolerances
> required.  That is the model we expect to use wherever we introduce the
> stove so there will be local economic development opportunities as well as
> someone available to repair the stove, if necessary.  It is currently
> designed to be used only outside.  We hope that kitchen testing will tell us
> whether it can be used indoors as long as the chimney is ventilated to the
> outside.****
>
> ** **
>
> The testing and manufacture is under being done with the assistance of the
> Department of Agriculture, Partnership for Development, JANI, (Jatropha
> Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative in ****Tanzania****, and Pamoja, Inc.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks for your interest and questions.  We welcome suggestions.****
>
> ** **
>
> Jan ****
>
>  ****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* rongretlarson at comcast.net [mailto:rongretlarson at comcast.net]
> *Sent:* Monday, August 08, 2011 8:21 PM
> *To:* **Discussion of biomass cooking stoves**; Jan Bianchi
>
> *Subject:* Re: [Stoves] Jatropha and its future
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> Jan and list
>
>   This is to better understand your nice **Jet** **City** stove .(for non
> West Coast **USA** readers - that means ****Seattle****  - which has a lot
> of Biochar activity)
>
>  1.   How did you happen to center on Jatropha?   Have you experimented
> both with whole seeds and the residue after pressing and how does stove
> operation differ?  Have you tried anything like wood chips?
>
>   2.  I think the flame pattern in your stove is wonderful.  As you say,
> very compact and obviously very turbulent - which must be desirable.  I am
> pretty sure the idea of central secondary air has been mentioned n the past
> on this list as a possibility - but I don't recall ever seeing it in
> practice.  Can you describe a bit how you came to the present dimensions ?
>
> 3.  I worry that you may now have too much secondary air - as the flame
> seems to only be holding near the bottom row or two.  Have you any way of
> knowing what the dilution factor is?  Tried operation with a smaller number
> of interior holes  (just plugging some progressively)?
>
> 4.  The central "column" (maybe with a different height) looks like it
> might  be able to hold a pot of the right size - since you would then
> already have the "convection shield" that gives considerable efficiency
> improvement. And you could retain the chimney height needed to get your
> desired air flow and power level. Ever been tried?
>
> 5.  I have felt that controlling primary air supply to be an important
> feature of pyrolysis stoves (TLUDs).  It seems your bottom set of holes
> could receive a rotating or sliding (or up and down) plate to accomplish
> that.  Has that ever been tried?  (This being accomplished nicely with a
> blower in the "Paul Olivier design also being discussed today.)
>
> Best of luck with what you are doing.  Nice work.
>
> Ron
>
>
> ****
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From: *"Jan Bianchi" <janbianchi at comcast.net>
> *To: *"**Discussion of biomass cooking stoves**" <
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> *Sent: *Monday, August 8, 2011 9:56:48 AM
> *Subject: *Re: [Stoves] Jatropha and its future****
>
> Roger****
>
> ** **
>
> That stove in the ETHOS pictures was a prototype version. The stove is now
> made from steel. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Jan
>
> Sent from my iPhone****
>
>
> On Aug 8, 2011, at 8:51 AM, Fireside Hearth <
> firesidehearthvashon at hotmail.com> wrote:****
>
>  Good morning....
>
> I am curious about a couple of the pictures of the stove by Otto....do I
> see galvanized sheet metal used in area's of high heat? the text talks about
> 800deg C. (1472 f.) if there is galvanized materials in contact with these
> temps it is quite possible that galvanic poisoning could kill the operator.
> A friend of mine was welding inside a galvanized pipe (large culvert for
> water drainage) when his oxygen mask failed and a green colored gas entered
> his lungs causing him some of the most horrible pain and near death
> experience imaginable. The other question I have is the material thickness.
> It does not look like this will withstand these temperatures for long. What
> is the life expectancy of this unit when exposed to these temps. Does it
> make sense to build something a bit more stout and send less of them to the
> land fill as the "burn out" too quickly with these exposures. Not all ways
> can we value things simply on "cost per unit" but "cost to the environment"
> should be taken into account. After looking at the industrial area's of
> northern ****China**** it seems to me that it is the environment which is
> paying for our "cheap" flat screens.  ****
>  ------------------------------
>
> From: <janbianchi at comcast.net>janbianchi at comcast.net
> Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 08:08:37 -0700
> To: <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Jatropha and its future****
>
> **Jet** **City** StoveWorks is currently conducting kitchen tests of the
> jatropha seed stove Marc refers to in ****Tanzania****.****
>
> ** **
>
>   Jatropha grows wild throughout the tropics as well as recently as
> biodiesel  crop there. Alternatively, and more productively,  it can be
> grown as a hedge around land holdings so it need not displace land for food
> production.  That produces enough seed to fuel the family cookstove for a
> year as well as have some left over to sell into the Jatropha market. It
> costs at least four times less than a comparable burn time for wood and six
> times less than charcoal.****
>
> ** **
>
> We are continuing CO and PM testing and hope to have our test results
> online by next month.  We had a stove at Aprovecho's stove camp couple of
> weeks ago and will have one at Paul Anderson's TLUD camp in MA in August.
> ****
>
> Sent from my iPhone****
>
>
> On Aug 8, 2011, at 2:10 AM, Marc Pare < <mpare at gatech.edu>mpare at gatech.edu>
> wrote:****
>
>  Crispin, re exisiting Jatropha stoves:****
>
> ** **
>
> There was this one at ETHOS this year by J. Otto and friends:****
>
>
> <http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/ethos/proceedings2011/OttoOttoCovert_JatrophaSeedCookingStoveDevelopmentPromotion.pdf><http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/ethos/proceedings2011/OttoOttoCovert_JatrophaSeedCookingStoveDevelopmentPromotion.pdf>
> http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/ethos/proceedings2011/OttoOttoCovert_JatrophaSeedCookingStoveDevelopmentPromotion.pdf
> ****
>
> and a quick picture of it running outside in ****Kirkland****:****
>
>
> <http://smallredtile.tumblr.com/post/3246717546/marc-in-the-wild-there-were-many-arguments-about><http://smallredtile.tumblr.com/post/3246717546/marc-in-the-wild-there-were-many-arguments-about>
> http://smallredtile.tumblr.com/post/3246717546/marc-in-the-wild-there-were-many-arguments-about
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> It burns whole seeds in a natural draft TLUD. Draft is augmented by an
> inner air pipe (lots of pictures of the assembly in the ETHOS presentation)
> ****
>
>
> Marc Paré
> B.S. Mechanical Engineering
> Georgia Institute of Technology | Université de Technologie de Compiègne
>
> my cv, etc. | <http://notwandering.com> <http://notwandering.com>
> http://notwandering.com
>
> ****
>
> On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 1:36 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <<crispinpigott at gmail.com><crispinpigott at gmail.com>
> crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:****
>
> Dear Friends****
>
> I am not sure how many stove are being worked on as Jatropha seed or oil or
> cake burners, but my understanding was the main thrust was to put to use
> some of the leftovers from biofuel production, especially that was the focus
> in Tanzania.****
>
> It seems those farmers who invested in Jatropha production lost about $65
> per ha <http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es201943v><http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es201943v>
> http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es201943v so my question is whether
> or not there is much point in working on (perhaps) whole seed stoves.
> Perhaps if the J-oil industry suffers a quick death there will still be a
> meaningful supply of oily seed fuel that  can be burned relatively easily
> with a decent performance and controllability. At least until they go back
> to sunflower which looks a lot more promising.****
>
> Has anyone made a sunflower seed burning stove? The oil runs up to 49% on
> some varieties.****
>
> Always looking for new ideas…****
>
> Regards****
>
> Crispin****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>
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