[Stoves] biochar rocket stove

Nolbert Muhumuza muhumuza at gmail.com
Tue Sep 18 13:02:57 CDT 2012


Hello Chrispin,

I  have read with caution the email you have posted today.

I am currently involved with projects along with Paul Anderson in Uganda
and around East Africa. While I honestly can not verify the origin on TLUD
stoves, i have experienced for the last 2+ years how economical in terms of
wood consumption (therefore wood saving) TLUDs are in this region.

Lab tests at CREEC (Makerere University)  have also proved that TLUD
micro-gasifiers are efficient backed with statistical data, including PEMS
tests and comparisons with other types of stoves like the classic charcoal
burners, rocket stoves and of course the 3-stone.

These stoves are using less wood, cooking faster which is a major reason
for their acceptance in East Africa. Women in the kitchens have tried and
experienced how they use less quantity of wood, are less smoky and also
cook quicker than their current conventional stoves. The notion of making
char is a plus for TLUDs because they use the char for other valuable
purposes including cooking.

If you think otherwise, then you should try personally using these stoves
for a while to prove what we are experiencing here.

Nolbert.

2012/9/18 Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at gmail.com>

> Dear Steve****
>
> ** **
>
> That was an interesting excursion. To be brief, there are a great number
> of technical misconceptions contained in the document
> http://www.soil-carbon-regeneration.co.uk/biochar/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Biochar-Rocket-Stove-building-instructions.pdf so
> my advice is to try to gain some knowledge from the general approach and
> from the unusual layout of the product but not take it all as literally
> true. ****
>
> ** **
>
> It is interesting that anything with a side feed is being termed a Rocket
> Stove. That rather undermines the actual Rocket Stove as a unique design,
> in my view. I guess people will call it what they want.****
>
> ** **
>
> I have copied here a paragraph from a the document:****
>
> ** **
>
> *The tlud*****
>
> Designed by Paul Anderson, the top light upward draught (tlud) gasifying
> cook stove works on more than just one level. It is a very efficient cook
> stove, producing a lot of heat from a small amount of wood. It is smokeless
> and it produces biochar. Paul Anderson has also been instrumental in
> getting these stoves distributed and used in developing countries where
> wood or charcoal is otherwise used in conventional fires for cooking. By
> being more efficient, less wood is needed. By being smokeless, diseases and
> deaths caused by smoke in living spaces are reduced. By producing biochar,
> subsistence growers are able to [maintain] soil fertility and improve soil
> structure, biological activity and moisture holding capacity. Atmospheric
> carbon is also being sequestered by the use of these stoves.****
>
> ** **
>
> So, I have some issues with some of this and because the whole list was
> referred to it there is merit in correcting some of the impressions given.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> The TLUD was invented centuries ago as a way to burning with little smoke.
> The Romans used TLUD fires. A TLUD cooking stove may or may not be
> ‘efficient’ depending entirely on how well it transfers heat from the flame
> to the pot and whether or not the remaining char( if any) is counted as
> ‘consumed by the stove’ or not. ****
>
> ** **
>
> The heat produced by a TLUD is no greater than the heat released by
> burning the same amount of fuel to the same extent in any other stove. That
> is, if you gasify wood in some other device the heat is exactly the same.
> TLUD’s are renowned for making lots of smoke when things are not working
> properly, like in the beginning and at the end of a burn there can be lots
> of smoke. Mitigation of this involves timely intervention by the cook. They
> are, after all, smoke producing devices that then burn the smoke. ****
>
> ** **
>
> You have no doubt seen Paul Anderson throwing a lit match into a smoke
> bomb of a stove re-lighting the fire when it has blown out. I have done it
> myself dozens of times. When they are running well, especially during the
> main part of the burn, they are amazingly smokeless, like any other really
> good biomass stove. I hope that the products evolve to the extent that they
> really are smokeless.****
>
> ** **
>
> Now, about ‘being more efficient’ and ‘using less wood’. I have been
> reading a range of documents/comments on this matter and it is not at all
> clear what is being claimed rather than inferred. If a stove is ‘more
> efficient’ then we expect that it will use less input of raw fuel (fewer
> trees chopped). If a stove uses the same amount of fuel and cooks while
> also producing char, it is not ‘more efficient’ and it is not ‘using less
> wood’. Only by ‘actually using less wood’ can a stove claim to be using
> less fuel, as far as I can understand it, looking at the forest and
> counting the trees. We have had several conversations here about whether a
> char making stove saves fuel, and so far there are no clear indications
> that they do. There is no shortage of *claims* that they do. They *cook
> with* *less energy*, but the input of fuel is about the same because a
> lot of the energy in the original fuel is still in the unburned char.****
>
> ** **
>
> To put some numbers on it (so it is not just a matter of opinion or
> prejudice) if a stove produces 20% char, and cooks with the same thermal
> efficiency as the baseline stove, then it definitely is using more fuel
> because it will consume raw wood to make the char plus the same amount of
> fuel to do the cooking.****
>
> ** **
>
> If a stove uses less energy to do the cooking (because it has a better
> heat transfer efficiency) then the fuel saved might equal the fuel needed
> to produce the char. If the fuel saved (through better energy delivery
> efficiency) is least 40%, and 20% char is produced, that is *more
> efficient cooking* but there is still no fuel saving at all.****
>
> ** **
>
> If the stove’s cooking efficiency was doubled compared with the baseline
> stove, there is some 50% of the fuel left to turn into charcoal. How much?
> At the most 45% of the mass. That would be remarkably good. So if half as
> much fuel was used to cook and the remainder was turned into char, let’s
> say ½ of the remaining fuel emerges as char, how much fuel is saved? Zero
> %. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Why? Because ½ of the baseline amount of fuel is being used to cook, and
> the other ½ is being turned into char. That is not a saving of fuel. It is
> clever, it is cooking while making char, but it is not saving fuel.****
>
> ** **
>
> So how does a TLUD save fuel and produce char at the *same* time? What
> are the real numbers? I think the biochar promoters should lead on this
> point. They must marshal their facts put numbers to the claims. If they
> don’t lead the field, then those stoves and the char industry will be
> discredited by these exaggerated claims.****
>
> ** **
>
> Suppose a really well designed stove saved 75% of the fuel over a baseline
> product. Suppose it also produced 25% char (based on the original dry mass
> of fuel). How much fuel, chopped trees or grassy biomass, would be saved
> (actual reduction in consumption)? ****
>
> ** **
>
> If you can calculate the answer to this question you are well on your way
> to promoting a ‘fuel saving char making TLUD’ that will be believed. I, for
> one, look forward to seeing such a stove.****
>
> ** **
>
> Best regards****
>
> Crispin****
>
> ** **
>
> HI,
>      with regard the quoted exchange in post  ****
> Stoves Digest, Vol 25, Issue 21****
>
> "Aron:
> >
> >        Can you clarify your intended design?  I know of no way that
> >     you can turn a rocket stove into a char-making stove (but would
> >     love to hear differently).
> >
> >     Ron."
> >
>
> The following link is to an acquaintances site who has adapted the rocket
> stove to gasify woody particles within the insulating jacket of the
> combustion rocket elbow.
>   I would be very interested to hear responses to this design approach.
>
>
> http://www.soil-carbon-regeneration.co.uk/biochar/biochar-stoves-2/biochar-rocket-stoves/
>
>
>                                              Steve****
>
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-- 
Nolbert Muhumuza
P.O. Box 40127, Nakawa
Kampala - Uganda
Mobile: +256-776-346724
Skype: nolbertm
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