[Stoves] gas wick, first try

[Julien Winter]

Hi Jock and all;

I don't have any copper pipe around to make a gas wick, but I did find a
small steel disk, so I decided to muck around with that instead, by
drilling it full of holes.

The objective was to get rid of the tall conical shape of the syngas fire
in a ND-TLUD and reduce soot.  I was successful at that when I cut back the
primary air, but the disk may interfere with combustion if place onto a
strong gas fire (if it is running a bit rich).

I have attached a pdf of photographs.

To say that playing with fire is in our genes is probably an
understatement, because I understand that fire was domesticated by Homo
erectus.

Cheers,
Julien.




On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 4:04 PM, Jock Gill <jg45 at icloud.com> wrote:

> Julien,
>
> Thanks for pushing this experiment along.
>
> A few notes to consider inserted below.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jock
>
> Jock Gill
> P.O. Box 3
> Peacham,  VT 05862
>
> Cell: (617) 449-8111
>
> google.com/+JockGill
>
> :> Extract CO2 from the atmosphere! <:
>
> Via iPad
>
> On Apr 5, 2014, at 2:46 PM, Julien Winter <winter.julien at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Jock et al;
>
> I have had a go with the two washers method, without the copper pipe in
> between them.
>
>
> Are you getting flamelets yet or still flames?  In my view flamelets will
> give yo  cleaner results.
>
> The pipe in the middle is key to improving mixing and shaping the
> combustion chamber.  I strongly recommend you use one.  Geometry matters.
>
> What I observed was that some of the flames came up the sides and didn't
> mix well.
>
>
> See above.  Also consider:
>
> What was the gap between the outer wall of the reactor and the edge of the
> disks?  Too small?  Too big? just right?
>
> I find flames that creep up the wall indicates a too rich mixture -- ie
> not all of the fuel is consumed in the chamber.  So you might try more
> secondary air or less primary or both.  You only need enough primary air to
> establish the pyrolysis and establish a good draft in the start up phase -
> perhaps 10 - 12 minutes..
>
>
> So what I did was put the a concentrator lid back on (See attached photo).
> Now what I have is:
>
> 1) top washer in the chimney
> 2) concentrator disk
> 3) bottom washer below the secondary air jets, but above the fuel bed.
>
>
> With the concentrator disk, the flames are forced into the middle as
> before, where there is mixing, but then forced apart again as they pass the
> upper disk.
>
>
> This could work, but I prefer a central column over a concentrator.
>
>
> What concerns, me though is that the increased resistance to air flow has
> reduced the power output from the stove.
>
>
> In many cases, the dirtier the burn, the hotter the fire.  It is a fine
> balance to achieve a tuning that burns cleanly and delivers a reasonable
> amount of "power", or thermal energy, to the target.
>
> Removing the concentrator will likely increase the draft, less resistance,
> and thus increase the rate of pyrolysis = increase the thermal energy
> output.
>
>
> Tomorrow, I will run some reps with and without the gas wick gizmo to
> measure the rate of fuel consumption.
>
>
> I doubt this will tell you much as you will have changed far too many
> variables to get meaningful data.
>
> In a day or two I will post some initial results from a FXJ burner that
> has ~ 12 cm disks with a 7.5 cm high combustion chamber.  No idea if this
> the optimal height.  The central post is about 2 inches in diameter -  a
> piece of steel pipe.  The reactor is 15 cm in diameter with a height of 19
> cm.  I expect there may be an optimal ratio of the diameter of the center
> post to the diameter of the reactor.  Perhaps 1:3  Needs testing.
>
> Keep up your experimenting and have fun too.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jock
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Julien
>
> --
> Julien Winter
> Cobourg, ON, CANADA
>
> <DSCN2215 - small.jpg>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
>
>


-- 
Julien Winter
Cobourg, ON, CANADA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20140406/96945ce4/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: TLUD_Cap.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 107014 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20140406/96945ce4/attachment.pdf>