[Stoves] Challenging fuel

Julien Winter winter.julien at gmail.com
Tue Dec 16 18:15:21 CST 2014


Hi Marquitusus:

With such a range of particle sizes, I can see potential problems with
smaller particles settling in the fuel bed and causing and uneven burn.
Settling small particles may even increase the resistance to primary air
flow.

I suggest sieving the fuel.  Try sieving them into different size fractions
such as < 3 mm, 3 - 15 mm, and > 15 mm and see how the different size
fractions burn.  You may find that the 3 - 15 mm fraction packs into a
denser bed than the > 15 mm fraction, and burns for longer.  If you do find
differences like that, then that could be very useful for the stove
operator to cook at heats.  Getting the dust < 3 mm to gasify may be
difficult, and a lot similar to sawdust.  That may be best used for some
other purpose, or discarded.  Sieving the fines out of the fuel may also
help with drying it.

I have found a similar problem with poplar wood chips.  My size classes are
dust < 3 mm, 3 - 10 mm and > 10 mm up to 2.5 cm thick.  The 3-10 mm chips I
used in a small tin-can ND-TLUD of about 10 cm diameter to produce a
gasification power curve that was slower than the curve for softwood
pellets.  The > 10 mm chips in used in a 18 cm diameter ND-TLUD to produce
a power curve that was faster than softwood pellets.  The dust went into
the compost with leaves and biochar.  My 10 mm sieve was made from what we
call here "hardware cloth".

Thanks for the picture.  It will be interesting to hear about what you find.

Cheers,
Julien.

-- 
Julien Winter
Cobourg, ON, CANADA
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