[Stoves] Stove tests - in practice?

[Julien Winter]

Hello Samer;

You raise a very good point that goes beyond my experience.

What I can say for myself, is that I get a deeper understanding in how
ND-TLUDs work when I try to measure their function and try to design a
cleaner burner.  Perhaps the most important thing I learn is what doesn't
work.  I have good TLUD graveyard.

I am working with colleagues in Bangladesh.  The stove burners I have
designed in Canada are of no use to them, because they want to make TLUDs
out of cement and clay.  What they really want is a stove that is free.
The TLUDs they make will not likely be used all the time in the household,
but only for special cooking tasks.  When my colleagues in Bangladesh ask
for advice, I know that there has to be design compromises to meet their
circumstances.  The knowledge I gain from theoretical, Canadian TLUDs helps
me to understand what the compromises are.  I can give advise with some
confidence, but we are learning all the time.

One of the suggestions that I have made is to design a TLUD insert for
existing stoves.  That way, the existing cooking platform is still used,
but from time to time it is converted to a gasifier.  Even the traditional
stove, which looks like a volcano made from clay, may work as a gasifier.
TLUDs can't be used all the time, because they are not suitable to all the
cooking tasks.  Furthermore, less than 50% of the fuel used in Bangladeshi
biomass stoves is wood.  The rest is low-bulk density plant residues.  That
fuel will not work in a TLUD.

Right now, my colleagues are asking for some kind of water-boiling test so
they can compare their TLUDs to traditional stoves.  They need the tests,
because they have to argue their case with their superiors, and other rural
extension workers, that the TLUDs are actually an improvement.  The test is
going to be fairly basic.

You raise an important topic, Samer, because the adoption of "improved"
cookstoves has a historically poor track record.

Cheers,
Julien.

-- 
Julien Winter
Cobourg, ON, CANADA
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