[Stoves] [biochar] Charcoal as space filler in TLUD reactors

[Kevin]

Dear Paul

When the "Stove Customer" wants char, then char producing stoves is what he should purchase. If the Stove Customer wants fuel efficiency, then he should purchase a stove that burns the greatest percentage of incoming fuel efficiently.

The energy loss in a char producing stove, assuming the char production of the char producing stove is about 20% of the weight of the incoming fuel, the "energy loss in the char is about 1/3 of the energy in the incoming fuel. Say 33%. Even if the char stove could consume 30% recycled char, with a 10% consumption, the overall effect on efficiency would be about 3%. 

Unless there is jiggery-pokery with the figures, a char producing stove will be inherently less efficient than a "full burn stove."

I would suggest that the Testing Protocol be set up with categories of comparable stoves. With the same testing and Reporting protocol, the Customer would have "the Big Picture" and could:
1: Firstly select the Category of stoves that best met his needs
and
2: He could then select the best stove in the category of importance to him.

That's fair.

Best wishes,

Kevin

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul Anderson 
  To: biochar at yahoogroups.com ; Discussion of biomass cooking stoves ; James S. Schoner ; Hugh McLaughlin 
  Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 5:33 PM
  Subject: [biochar] Charcoal as space filler in TLUD reactors


    
  Dear all,

  My earlier comments about charcoal as a space filler in TLUD reactors 
  have been placed at my website.

  > http://www.drtlud.com/2013/05/01/dr-tlud-shares-some-tlud-stove-operation-tips/
  Tom Miles replied that between 7% and 10% of the charcoal could be 
  consumed during such a the TLUD batch. I do not have any data on that 
  (not yet), but I raise some questions:

  1. Tom, what percentage of the fuel in your "batch" was biomass and 
  what percentage was charcoal? A very high percentage of the "fuel" as 
  charcoal would favor higher percentages of char consumption. If there is 
  rather little charcoal as filler, even 10% of consumption might be a 
  small price to pay for being able to use skraggly narly twisted biomass 
  that does not fill well into TLUD fuel chambers. But the ability to 
  fill in the excessive space could be very important for biochar makers 
  who otherwise could need to do considerably more pre-processing of the 
  fuels. In other words, more "forms" of biomass could be better 
  accepted into TLUDs for heat and char production.

  2. Charcoals are not pure carbon. Some residual volatiles are 
  present, with more in the chars that were prepared at lower pyrolysis 
  temperatures. Merely giving a second chance (and more time) for the 
  volatiles to become gases could result in a different (better?) form of 
  biochar. If that is the case, then the 10% reduction could be viewed 
  as an improvement and not as a loss.

  3. Please note that the addition of charcoal into the TLUD fuel 
  chambers was not a topic of discussion. This is new ground and is an 
  open field for everyone and anyone.

  WE NEED SOME DATA ON THIS. I hope that those who are actively producing 
  biochar will conduct a few simple experiments to help us be better 
  informed. TLUD users do NOT need to wait for others to get us some 
  more data. Please contribute whatever experiments you can.

  And if you want to work together with others, maybe some of you will 
  come to one of the Dr TLUD Workshops on Stoves and Biochar this year.

  Paul

  -- 
  Paul S. Anderson, PhD aka "Dr TLUD"
  Email: psanders at ilstu.edu Skype: paultlud Phone: +1-309-452-7072
  Website: www.drtlud.com



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