[Stoves] Combustion gas analysers

Frank Shields frank at compostlab.com
Thu Sep 20 13:03:07 CDT 2012


Thanks for this doc. Real useful.

 

I find it interesting that many analyzers leave out one measurement so to
make it easy to always add up to 100%.  CO2 is really easy to measure. We
are looking for a new CO2 analyzer so I appreciate all the recent info from
Crispin and Marc.

 

Thanks

 

Frank 

 

From: stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Marc Pare
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012 1:43 AM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Combustion gas analysers

 

For instructions on how to use the output numbers from a combustion analyser
and how to make basic calculations please see the Boiling Point article at
<http://www.hedon.info/BP55_SoYouFinallyBoughtACombustionAnalyser?bl=y>
http://www.hedon.info/BP55_SoYouFinallyBoughtACombustionAnalyser?bl=y

which also has a photograph of two different analysers. The formatting is
not as easy to read as the original article but it is all there.

 

Attached is the nice pdf of the aforementioned article. So useful!

 

Marc Paré
B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology | Université de Technologie de Compiègne

my cv, etc. | http://notwandering.com



On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 9:59 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
<crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Gas Measuring Friends

 

I have been looking at combustion analysers (again) and discovered that my
almost favourite portable machine, the TSI CA-6302 is no longer in
production. Goodbye to a friend
.

 

There is a company Unigas which makes a ragne of machines that have stepped
into the same space at a similar price, but with one basic unit that is
quite a bit cheaper. So I am forwarding the information in case you are
considering evaluating your stove performance. These units are necessary if
you want to develop a very low emission stove.

 

http://www.topac.com/e8500gasanalyzer.html is a top end unit that competes
favourably with a Testo 350/454 at about ½ the price. I contacted Topac,
just one of many vendors. In Canada one vendor is E&E Process in NW Toronto.

 

As there are only about 3 manufacturers of the cells that go into these
machines you can expect the cost of adding a cell to be about the same,
whoever makes it. A Testo 350 has many features that are not needed for an
stove experimenter, but just to let you know, Tom Miles uses one, and so do
I when I have a chance! There are two at the SeTAR Centre for field work.
But they are seriously expensive.

 

>From Unigas you can get an 1100 series http://www.topac.com/gas_flue.html
which is the basic unit - $1500. It will measure O2 and CO and calculate the
CO2, and Excess Air level. That is the lest you need to know to be able to
work out what your CO(EF) values are. That means (EA+100%) x CO reading.
Also called ‘the undiluted CO level’. The TSI reported this directly but
most do not. The usefulness of this figure is that you can make direct
comparisons between different stoves or different burns on the same stove to
know which is performing better.

 

Above the 1100 is a 2200 with an extra cell, and a 4400 with either 3 or 4
more cells. The cost runs up to $4500.

 

The 8500 series has, for $10k, an NDIR CO2 cell, NDIR CxHy (hydrocarbons)
and electrochemical NO, SO2 and H2S. I have enquired as to whether there is
a Hydrogen measurement missing because the CO cell pretty much has to be H2
compensated (being very reactive) but it is not on the brochure as a
reported gas. Odd.

 

So many cool toys for stovers are emerging. Even the basic units above a
printer built in and can stove 600 sets of readings. The expensive ones
communicate in real time with a laptop via Bluetooth and there is even a
wireless printer. 

 

Recurrent cost: combustion analysers have running costs. The O2 cells die
over time whether or not you use them, and so do the CO cells. But, if you
are earning any reasonably amount of money from developing and making
stoves, you really need to cover this as part of your ‘professional’ work.
It is very difficult to guess how a stove is working or if a small change in
it was a help or a hindrance.

 

For instructions on how to use the output numbers from a combustion analyser
and how to make basic calculations please see the Boiling Point article at
http://www.hedon.info/BP55_SoYouFinallyBoughtACombustionAnalyser?bl=y 

which also has a photograph of two different analysers. The formatting is
not as easy to read as the original article but it is all there.

 

Regards

Crispin

 


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