[Stoves] The upside of Down feed

[rongretlarson at comcast.net]

Alex and list: 

Interesting that this mound forms. It seems there must be substantial velocity to the air. Can you guess as to the length of the mound - both actual and in diameters.. 

You say " This happens past the end of the grate." I have had a mental image of a rather complete blockage of the pipe with new pellets only able to fall down and begin pyrolysis as lower level char was burned up. Is that part still a correct image? Now I am envisioning enough high velocity air flow that there is also this separate " long Kilimanjaro" which is not physically connected to the "pile" directly under the hopper. Maybe this forms to a certain length and then can grow no more? Anything you can do to give a better mental image of why this shape would be appreciated. This mound is fully charred?. 

I of course like the idea of the pot - and hope that char production can be part of the operation. 

I am missing (after a few minutes of googling) the connection between coal (charcoal?) and Kilimanjaro 

I also sent a different note with more questions about 8 hours before this response. Still hoping you can answer those questions also. 

Thanks Ron 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex English" <english at kingston.net> 
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 7:14:10 PM 
Subject: Re: [Stoves] The upside of Down feed 





Ron, 
As you know small dimensioned biomass generally chars as a first stage of combustion. If the char moves into an air starved zone in the furnace it will cool a bit and collect. This happens past the end of the grate. It forms a long Kilimanjaro shaped mound in the pipe. The peak is about half the pipe diameter. Perhaps its a stretch, but it could be described as half of a convergent/divergent nozzle. The acceleration over the peak seems to prevent further pile growth, a form of mountain top removal, char-coal mining. I'm not the first to link coal to Kilimanjaro. 

I have not tried to turn it into a char maker. It is possible that a pot could be placed under that portion of the pipe, et viola. For now it remains a known unknown. 
Alex 





RWL: I have totally missed the possibility of a char output in your design. I can't even see a Venturi possibility.. Can you explain a bit more on how that can be accomplished? Have you accomplished any char preservation yet? 

Thanks. Ron 





----- Original Message -----






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