[Stoves] Wood Pellets + Coffee chaff + Rice Hulls

[Frank Shields]

Jock and all,

 

I think this is really key to getting the TLUD stoves on the market. It
seems to me that when selling them in an area there must be prepared fuel
ready to go along with it. 

Making it fool proof and able to light with a simple match tossed in will go
a long ways to getting people to using them.  Like the pressed fireplace
logs wrapped in paper with the arrow printed to show the places at each end
to light then walk away is what we might be able to achieve. Perhaps a press
like what Richard Stanly produces to make a pressed fuel wrapped in paper
that one can push into a Paul Anderson  TLUD and light the paper on top
would work. 

 

Thanks

 

Frank

 

 

Thanks 

 

Frank Shields

 

BioChar Division

Control Laboratories, Inc. 

42 Hangar Way

Watsonville, CE  95076

 

(831) 724-5422 tel

(81) 724-3188 fax

 <mailto:frank at biocharlab.com> frank at biocharlab.com

www.controllabs.com

 

 

 

 

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Jonathan P Gill
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2013 10:12 AM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Cc: Jerry Whitfield; Marshall Webb
Subject: [Stoves] Wood Pellets + Coffee chaff + Rice Hulls

 

Friends,

 

Paul Olivier's recent post about layering wood pellets and rice husks got me
to thinking.  As Paul has previously written, air channels thru a TLUD's
fuel bed can cause problems.

 

Today, I mixed 4 scoops of wood pellets with 1 scoop of rice hull and 1
scoop of coffee chaff.  I then soaked some of this mix in alcohol for 5
minutes to use as the igniter.  Note, this ratio is only a zero order
approximation of a balance between energy density in the fuel chamber and
smaller particles as air channel blockers.

 

This worked very well in a TLUD with some gentle help for both primary and
secondary air from a variable speed fan set at a low rate at the base of the
unit.  The rice hull biochar was just lovely.  It passed Hugh's no soap test
better than any biochar I have made to date. [Note to Hugh: I am dry
quenching some of the results in a mason jar.  Would you like to see some of
it?]

 

To me, this suggests that it may well be worth experimenting with various
fuel mixes to minimize channeling in the fuel bed as this appears to improve
the overall results.  Further, this gives a combined result with multiple
carbon particle sizes.  Perhaps easier to get into the plant root zone.  If
only applied to the growing mounds, we can avoid giving the weeds the
advantages of biocahr.  Why help the weeds?  This strongly suggests that
pyrolytic carbon [biocahr] may want to be applied in a very strategic
fashion, not simply broadcast over the fields.  Forest application are
probably another story altogether.  

 

I look forward to the results of more testing and evaluations.

 

Cheers,

 

Jock

 

Jonathan P Gill

Peacham, VT.

jg45 at icloud.com

 

Extract CO2 from the atmosphere. 

 

 

 

 

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