[Stoves] Principles - draft from 2011 - addendum

[Jock Gill]

Paul,

I should note that I find I can tune my iCan TLUDs to work well with a wide range of fuels.  I have  had success with wet wood chips, Jatropha seeds - individually pierced before use, grass tablets, grass pellets, wood pellets, chain saw kerf, pine comes, and various other materials. Generally, this tuning involves the amount of primary air and the amount of fuel in the system.

So I conclude from direct personal experience that a multi-fuel approach is quite workable.  So far, I have not found a biomass that I cannot get to work in an iCan. Jatropha seeds were the most challenging so far, but it only took about three trials to get the tuning to work OK.

This of course only supports your observations.


Regards,

Jock

Jock Gill
P.O. Box 3
Peacham,  VT 05862

Cell: (617) 449-8111

:> Extract CO2 from the atmosphere! <:

Sent from my iPad

On Apr 6, 2013, at 1:35 PM, Paul Anderson <psanders at ilstu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Jock,
> 
> Thank you for your observations.   Useful for discussion and especially for those getting started, but many seemed a bit dogmatic, that is, too black and white.   Guidance is good; prescription is not so good.
> 
> I do take exception with your Item number 2 which says:
> 
>> 2. Basic design must be able to be tuned for multi-fuel capability - no dependencies on
>> a single type of feedstock. Jatropha beans, cherry pits, nut shells, rice hulls, and
>> densified grass are examples of preferred feed stocks with few, if any, other uses. Each
>> feedstock type is likely to require a specific tuning of the system.
> 
> From my experiences and observations, the "specific tuning" needed is basically different stoves for different fuels, especially for the specialty (non-wood) feedstocks that you name:  Jatropha beans, cherry pits, nut shells, rice hulls, and
> densified grass.  
> 
> ESPECIALLY in places where those feedstocks are sufficiently abundant, in those places a special stove could be the only one needed, and therefore not needing to have multi-fuel capabilities.  
> 
> We should encourage the stove developers to master one specific fuel very well, and present that stove for evaluation.   And not divert to trying to make that stove also use other fuels.   
> 
> Basically, stove developers should NOT be discouraged when people say "but will it also burn fuel X, or Y or Z."   Do not worry, there are so many places in the world with (you name the specific fuel) that there could be substantial markets in those locations to assure success of a stove for that specific fuel.
> 
>> 
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