[Stoves] Grass bundles as TLUD fuel

[Michael Mahowald]

Thanks Vetle, this is really great news for us at haitireconstruction.ning.com ,  We really want to use the grass naturally, to get people to grow more hedgerows to stop erosion.
We didn't have too much luck with the grass in its natural state so far in Haiti, it was dried for a long time but maybe still held a little moisture since it produced a lot of smoke.
We will make sure it is even drier next time and try to work on adjusting the holes and tighten the bundles.
 
We did get a hold of grass pellets last night and they worked great!  With only 4 inches of pellets in the bottom of our large stove designed for natural fuel we boiled a gallon of water in 12 minutes and it heated our oven to 430 Degrees burning for over 30 minutes.  Our stoves capacity could burn these grass pellets for 2 1/2 hours!
 
I have a video of the new stove top with oven on our website front page, I am working on making a better video with this latest grass test in the next weeks.
 
Thanks Mike

 



Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:35:30 +0100
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Grass bundles as TLUD fuel
From: vetle.w.cappelen at biomass-stove.no
To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
CC: memahowald at hotmail.com; christa-roth at foodandfuel.info; solarbobky at yahoo.com; bizurman at gmail.com

Dear Paul and all

I guess my father also will answer to this question about his
experience.

But I still wish to explain my experience with grass/straw as fuel when I
was in Zambia in October with the Peko Pe.

We actually used the same grass / straw used for roofs shown in the
picture. Since people already have some kind of relationship and
infrastructure with it, it made perfect sense.

It was little tricky to get the gasification started in the beginning. But
after some fail and trying we manage it quite well. We expected the grass/
straw would burn rather quicly and with a high energy level. That was not
the case, more or less, in our test.

We filled the Peko Pe 6 liter stove with 7 - 800 grams and it combusted
for about 40 minutes with clear blue/yellowish a temperature of about
500ºC

The trick is bundle the grass tight enough to fill the stove, but not too
tight and prevent primary air "up" to the fuel bed. Also to have
enough igniting fuel in the beginning. (we used wood shaving) Then it was
woking really good.

Personal meaning is that this is a surprising good type of fuel with
little needs for processing.



--
Vennlig hilsen / Kind regards

Vetle Wendelbo Cappelen
Project Manager
Cell: (+47) 451 24 146

Biomass stove

www.pekope.com
Org: 996 041 387
Bank: 6580.17.49806

Kingosgate 9
0457 Oslo, Norway





Dear Paul and all

I guess my father also will answer to this question about his
experience.

But I still wish to explain my experience with grass/straw as fuel when I
was in Zambia in October with the Peko Pe.

We actually used the same grass / straw used for roofs shown in the
picture. Since people already have some kind of relationship and
infrastructure with it, it made perfect sense.

It was little tricky to get the gasification started in the beginning. But
after some fail and trying we manage it quite well. We expected the grass/
straw would burn rather quicly and with a high energy level. That was not
the case, more or less, in our test.

We filled the Peko Pe 6 liter stove with 7 - 800 grams and it combusted
for about 40 minutes with clear blue/yellowish a temperature of about
500ºC

The trick is bundle the grass tight enough to fill the stove, but not too
tight and prevent primary air "up" to the fuel bed. Also to have
enough igniting fuel in the beginning. (we used wood shaving) Then it was
woking really good.

Personal meaning is that this is a surprising good type of fuel with
little needs for processing.



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