[Stoves] Flame of jatropha seeds burnt in biomass stove UB

[Jonathan Otto]

Dear M.  Nurhuda,
 
Thanks for this information on your experiences.  It seems your stove is not been able to handle the challenges of combusting the different kinds of oils found in Jatropha seeds.
 
However, the conclusion that "it is not good idea to use jatropha seeds or fruits as fuel" seems a bit premature, as is seems to assume that your experience is the same as every other stove maker.
 
What I think would be a more positive way of presenting data -- and your experiences are indeed valuable for all of us to hear -- would be to state your findings, and ask if others have had similar experiences, speculate what might remedy the perceived problem, and get a conversation going.
 
By condemning J seed as a fuel source based of your experiences, you take the emphasis off of the real questions at hand, which involve clean and efficient use of this fuel, and spin them towards a premature argument about whether the fuel itself is appropriate.
 
With that off my chest, I can report on expereinces from using the jiko safi micro gasification, ND-TLUD, stove that was designed expressly for Jatropha seed.  We do occasionally hear the cracking of seeds inside the combustion chamber, but these events do not seem to affect combustion.  To date we have found very low levels of emissions of any kind, although more thorough emission studies are planned for coming months.
 
Some possible issues to explore. Can you tell us more about the kind of stove you used? What level of particulate emissions have you recorded?  Are these numbers consistent over a series of emission tests? Why do you conclude that the cracking, i.e., 'small explosions', of some seeds is necessarily a bad thing? In what sense did you find the combustion of Jatropha seed 'difficcult to control'?
 
Looking forward to learning more,
 
Jonathan

 

> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:59:11 +0700
> From: mnurhuda at ub.ac.id
> To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
> Subject: [Stoves] Flame of jatropha seeds burnt in biomass stove UB
> 
> Dear Stovers,
> 
> Please check the following link to see our biomass stove UB fueled with
> jatropha seeds.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngEQPU-k_3w&feature=youtu.be
> 
> From many test, I think it is not good idea to use jatropha seeds or
> fruits as fuel. I frequently observed small explosions, presumably caused
> by overpressure within the seed, when the seed is heated.
> 
> In addition, high oil contain causes the release of black carbon. The
> difference in the gasification temperature between jatropha oil and
> biomass makes the combustion is difficult to control.
> 
> Kind regards
> M. Nurhuda
> 
> 
> 
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