[Stoves] Role of secondary air on wood burning and charcoal stoves

[Sarbagya R. Tuladhar]

Hi stovers,

The debate on the role of secondary air both for natural draft and forced draft has been raging for quite some time now. Obtaining secondary air in pre-heated form has been the research area for me in the laboratory for the past few weeks. However, one conclusion I obtained was that secondary air if not pre-heated would have the tendency to put off the fire by blowing in cold air. 

Hence my question is:

What is the role of secondary air for wood burning stoves ? Is there an optimum gap for the secondary air to travel between the jackets of the combustion chamber before ejecting out into the combustion chamber ? How does this effect the performance of the cookstove ? I know a few cookstoves which have secondary air concept included and which seemed to decrease the CO and PM up to some extent. 

What is the role of secondary air for charcoal burning stoves ? Quoting Crispin "Secondary air is necessary to burn charcoal in a low O2 environment at a high temperature." How does this effect the performance of the charcoal cookstove?

Waiting for the responses.

Cheers

Sarbagya Tuladhar
Pondicherry, INDIA
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