[Stoves] Making smoke in 2013?

[Carefreeland at aol.com]

Dear Kevin and Stovers, 
    I would love to dissect wood smoke and study  farther but have no 
lab-yet. I have a bit of hands -on experience though. Wood  smoke seems to be 
good at repelling many  insects.     
    Birds like to fly through it, to get rid of  parasites I presume. I 
used it many times quite by accident at first, to run the  insects out of the 
greenhouse in the fall. The spiders seem to hide good and  come back to 
finish the job. They run faster than chewing insects for  example. 
    Smoke  also settles creosote on plant leaves  and stems. This repels 
insects and seems to resist mildew and other  funguses. It probably kills the 
smaller insects, maybe hurts the eggs or  reproductive cycle of others. 
    Creosote wash may work as a great soil fungicide or  pesticide in 
specific strengths. Possibly breeaking down the smoke into active  components 
would help. Inquiring minds want to know. 
    Ash, on the other hand, is a nearly perfect  fertilizer, although 
sometimes out of balance. It contains everything a plant  needs including most 
micro-nutrients, except nitrogen. It also has amazing  surface area due to the 
micro silicon crystals fused by fire. This probably  could be an area of 
extensive intensive study. Anybody need a Ph.D. topic? 
    Mix fertilizer with urine, dilute with  compost, let sit to chemically 
and biologically cool off, and it seems to  be a good balanced combination 
match as a fertilizer. 
    Just my 2 cents, 
    
    Dan Dimiduk 
 
 
 
In a message dated 11/13/2013 6:29:09 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
kchisholm at ca.inter.net writes:

Dear Teddy

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _Cookswell Jikos_ (mailto:cookswelljikos at gmail.com)  
To: _Discussion of biomass cooking  stoves_ 
(mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org)  
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 5:14  AM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Making smoke in  2013?


Hi All,   


Would anybody be able to clarify from an emissions standpoint, (and  
honestly I am not sure I understand it completely) is wood smoke is 'food'  for 
tree's?
 
# The first thing to do is define "smoke". :-) While  "pyrolysis products" 
may be beneficial for seed treatment or insect control,  I am guessing that 
the quantity, distribution and lack of permanence of  "pyrolysis products 
distributed as a result of poor combustion" would likely  have a minimil 
beneficial or detrimental effect on plant  growth.
 
# The "products of complete combustion" of biomass are  basically CO2 and 
water vapour. Additional CO2 in the atmosphere will be  beneficial to plant 
growth only if existing CO2 levels were the constraint  to plant growth. I am 
guessing that this is seldom the case... the limiting  factors are probably 
more likely to be Sunlight, Moisture, and  Nutrients.
 
 If so, take my small stove business - if I sell 100 stoves in a  month 
that in total will use say - 1 ton of biomass (charcoal so perhaps 7  tons of 
wood). How many tree's would myself and my customers need to plant  every 
month to not only achieve a positive feedback loop of increased  biomass but be 
able to 100% reduce the emissions produced? 
 
# The number of trees you need to support a stove  depends on the "Mean 
Annual Increment of Growth" for the trees being used  for fuel. For example, if 
heating my home requires 5 cords of wood per year,  and the "Mean annual 
increment" for spruce trees is 1 cord per acre per  year, then I would need an 
area of 5 acres to grow the trees required to  heat my home with no net 
increase or decrease of the wood on my woodlot. If  the woodlot is managed in a 
sustainable manner, then it is unlikely that  "re-planting" will be 
required, in that the trees will naturally "re-seed"  the harvested areas, or, 
depending on the species, the trees will send up  clones from their roots. Note 
that if one is not using "Sustainable  Management Practises, there will 
never be a gain in wood availability, no  matter how many trees are planted.


Is this even possible? I feel very strongly that woodfuel stove  
manufacturers and users should be responsible for replanting, growing and  advocating 
tree planting as a future source of renewable energy, if only for  our own 
job security. I am also very interested in finding out how one can  actually 
measure the number of tree's needed to be grown compared to the  number of 
stoves in use? (especially if the woodlot is managed under a  
pruning/coppicing regime).
 
# It is not that difficult. You need to know the  amount of wood consumed 
per year per stove, and the "Mean Annual Increment"  of growth for the tree 
species being grown in the particular area, and the  percentage of the "Mean 
Annual Increment" (MAI)  that actually gets  used as fuel. For example, if 
the MAI is 1 cord per acre per year, and if  half the wood is sold off as 
logs, then 2 acres would be required to yield 1  cord of fuel wood.


many thanks for any thoughts, 
 
# I hope this is helpful.
 
Best wishes,
 
Kevin







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