[Stoves] Jatropha and its future

[Anand Karve]

Dear Crispin,
we found that keeping the wood pieces standing vertically in the fire
box worked better even in our own models of the Indian chulha stove.
All our models have a bottom grate through which the fuel is supplied
with primary air. The fire mouth through which the wood is inserted
into the fire box acts as the inlet port of the secondary air. In the
chulha the wood is ignited from the bottom. How is the fire started in
Vesto? Do the logs burn from top to bottom or from bottom to top?
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 6:32 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
<crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Lloyd
>
>
>
> That is great news. If you are passing through Waterloo please stop in so we
> can do a couple of emission tests.
>
>
>
> I was working on the weekend to burn one of the worst fuels I have seen so
> far – a 100mm diameter high density sawdust log with no hole in the centre.
> Eventually I got it working well and boiled 5.2 litres in 16 minutes. I used
> a 130mm long piece standing up on end in a Vesto. I also tried drilling a 1
> inch hole through the centre but to burn that it needs to be in ‘gasifier
> mode’. That means starting with a higher primary air flow then closing it.
> Not as convenient but possible.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Crispin
>
>
>
> From: stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
> [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Lloyd Helferty
> Sent: 16 August 2011 14:31
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Jatropha and its future
>
>
>
> Christina (And Jan),
>
>   Just to let you (and everyone) know, I was able to successfully use/burn
> whole Jatropha nuts in a natural draft Top-Lit- UpDraft (TLUD) stove (made
> out of tin cans) at the recent CHAB Camp hosted by the Biomass Energy
> Foundation in Belchertown, MA.  I did it outdoors on a windy day.
>   While I did not intentionally inhale the smoke, I do not believe that the
> smoke of the J-nuts was any more toxic than other types of smoke.  Hugh
> McLaughlin actually explained that the smoke from a Jatropha fire was likely
> just as toxic as from any other fire -- smoke of any kind tends to be
> something one should not breathe [hence the warning on cigarette boxes].
>  My little natural draft TLUD produced very little smoke once the secondary
> airflow was adjusted properly and pyrolyzing the Jatropha nuts, although
> when it was left unattended it did start smoking a little bit at the end of
> the burn as the stove attempted to burn through the resulting biochar.
> (Although if this were running indoors, I would probably be more worried
> about the CO being produced than any toxicity that might arise from the
> J-nuts.)
>
>   Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
>
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>



-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)

*Please change my email address in your records to: adkarve at gmail.com *