[Stoves] A few details on the Rim Fire iCan

Sun May 5 14:37:57 CDT 2013

Steve & Ron, 

I made the new pyrolizer chamber with the smaller 5/64ths primary air holes.  Runtime increased about 25% on the same 1500 grams of wood pellets. But still too much primary once the pyrolysis was fully started.  I test in a breeze way that has plenty of breeze and gusts.  The fire does not go out, but the wind will create smoke.  A test in windless conditions will always have less smoke.
Ran some tests with 10.6 degree C well water [51 degrees F].  Was able to easily boil 3,500 grams of water with the 1,500 grams of wood pellets.

1. Put 1,000 grams of water in the tuna fish can pot on the grate 1 minute after ignition.  Given the fire was just getting going, the boil time was ~13 minutes.

2. Put 500 grams of water in the Swiss Volcano style unit on mid way into the burn.  Boil time was about 6:15 minutes.  Start temp was 10.6C

3. Repeated test #1 above, but with fire on full.  Boil time for 1,000 grams of 10.6 C water was ~ 10 minutes.  3 minutes faster than at a start.

4. Put the can back on the fire, but with a cover.  Boil time for 1,000 grams, near the end of the run, was 9 minutes. About a 10% gain.

At the end of the burn, the system self-extinguished with no smoke.  But there was also no blue flame dancing on the burner plate.  Charcoal produced had a very clean nose, had no floaters, no incompletely charred bits, and passed the "no soap" test.  The quenching water was clear - ie low ash.

A few iPhone pictures for the curious:

Burner plate in position to be used.  The notch is an artifact and should NOT be there.

A new plate, slightly larger, cut with a plasma torch, will replace this one.

View showing that the burner plate is set slightly below the rim of the reactor can.

The business end of the Rim Fire iCan. Boiling water the old school way.

The silver part is a standard 8" to  6 " stove pipe reducer.

The black at the bottom of the above is the top of a length of 8" stove pipe.

Boiling water Swiss Volcano Style - the "pot" sits in the flue to maximize the area
absorbing heat and to minimize the area radiating heat. 

Top view of 500 grams of water boiling Swiss Volcano Style.

Please note that just about everything here is simply a first order approximation.

Suggestions, questions?

Regards,

Jock

Jonathan P Gill
Peacham, VT.
jg45 at icloud.com

Extract CO2 from the atmosphere. 

On May 5, 2013, at 12:26 PM, Jonathan P Gill <jg45 at icloud.com> wrote:

> Steve,
> 
> Good question.  Will try to find an answer for you.
> 
> FYI: I found an expensive digital cooking thermometer my wife uses and measured the water that had been sitting out over night.  It was actually 12.8 degrees C, not 14.  Our well water is currently running at about 12 degrees C!
> 
> Note: The Rim Fire iCan pyrolyzer unit is a 3 lbs Costco coffee can.  Pretty good steel.  Much better than that in a paint can. Better if it were made of stainless.  But this is the only part that needs high temperature stainless.
> 
> Dimensions:
> 
> H:				19 CM
> Max. Diameter:	 ~ 15.5 CM
> Exit aperture:		13 CM
> 
> Burner plate diameter:	11.5 CM.  I want to try one about 12 CM. It  has to be fairly easy to place into the can and also to remove at the end of the run.
> 
> The steel burner plate is set about 4 mm below the lip of the can's exit aperture.  Ie, 4 mm below the point at which the secondary air enters the system.
> 
> A "full" fuel load, one that leaves a bit of distance from the top of the fuel to the bottom of the burner plate, is 1,500 grams of wood pellets.
> 
> More as it is - after I make a pyrolyzer with even smaller primary air holes, 5/64s of an inch rather than the current 3/32s.
> 
> These dimensions are simply starting points.  Nothing is written in granite by lightening.
> 
> Jock

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