[Stoves] A review of chronological development in cookstove assessment methods: Challenges and way forward

Wed Nov 25 13:18:58 CST 2015

Hi Ron and all,
I am sure that there are others of you that share experience with biochar
producing cook-stoves that parallel mine: I have ran TLUD cook-stoves
thousands of times over the past 6 years. I also built and experimented on
"Anila" style retort stoves and Rocket Stove-Gasifier hybrids.I want both
an easy hands free way to cook and I want to harvest high quality charcoal
at the end of my cooking process. I quickly settled on TLUDs as the most
viable and consumer of the various approaches. Although I own a Paul
Olivier, stainless steel rice-husk gasifier stove, it is using bamboo and
wood as input materials that constitutes the vast majority of my experience.

TLUD stoves if run correctly give the user very consistent experience and
performance across the following metrics, I will use the stove I am
currently prototyping (it has an 7" (17.78cm)dia fuel chamber as an example:

   - With a batch load of bamboo or wood of approximately 3lbs (1.360kg)
   the stove will burn for approximately one hour and 15 minutes
   - If quenched at the point complete carbonization has occurred and the
   pyrolysis front has collapsed, (which indicates all the volatiles that can
   be released at the stoves peak temperature have been combusted ) your dry
   weight yield in charcoal will consistently be near 20% of the dry weight of
   input material.
   - The stove will average a temperature, in it's pyrolysis front, of
   between 550C-750C
   - It will currently boil 5-liters of water (no lid) in approximately
   25-30 minutes
   - It will then hold the water at a high simmer for 45-50 minutes
   - As the maximum temperature of carbonization is the same as that of the
   Estufa Finca cook-stove that we have been using for the past 5+ years, we
   expect that we will see a similar result when we have samples of this
   biochar laboratory characterized for estimated available surface area. IE;
   450-500m2 per gram

In the lab using the WBT our "Low Power Specific Consumption" score looks
terrible. But I do not believe that means that these are an inefficient or
wasteful stove. Not only do I hope that new methdologies can be developed
that do not penalize "batch loaded " stoves, I also hope we can build up a
robust data base of Controlled Cooking Tests, which will provide a more
relevant assessment of the TLUDs fuel efficiency.

RE: the value of the charcoal : sure you can burn it. I've barbecued on  my
stove's charcoal many times. But , as you have produced a product which can
be sold at a higher price for use in soil amendments, water filters,
personal care products and medicine, we found we could charge more for it
and that there is a real market for this product.

These are cook-stoves. But I have now sold over 500 of the classic Estufa
Finca design to US gardeners, who are mostly interested in making biochar
with as little pollution and waste as possible.

Art Donnelly
President SeaChar.Org
US Director, The Farm Stove Project
http://shop.seachar.org/collections/all
<http://email2.globalgiving.org/wf/click?c=1Oy%2FmZbgIyjS5WI580KXwShvfKBcF2eaJvtN7Pi6p7Jl%2FiR4938EMMCBwY%2FuYALeA%2BQYUWN4RpvnxBsBC7e2%2BGIHcONTozBmvsUU5LTL%2FTNk4Q3vxE%2BKdXTV2cxIsFplSPh%2F9nMG3bQMQf4bz9ZK9SHMy46Z8OPLAtMAnPG9SKkPuLCWvofBTLC%2BImqax%2BZTkkF2RvDri5UdgH19NHjHOBj5WMUrS4L62Z2xxUJbBsJdDUOfeifheNFXH546Xm0yul4P2stm%2FTUOJxYnI0nFjXEaYfzxDSc%2FwgqVkR1t0USDHk30%2Fgt9UpDpyzLj37HWtnNQ0q8Jh1gZCkB4Y1Fgbg394gYFkyNqFN4MchxO2Js%3D&rp=wrhiOr2wAxUyDMDlMSqbOkKa0FpPoiCSHffb%2ByfHGClRxIFjEIrUDwAF%2BFD%2BpAPuvam9BDwvSMcadhFv7aFwKoyAXYrFk00%2B92xPIeMHXaTDJ3x0VIj6ZYwjm1win65o&up=YDTqBOjidbCUo%2Far1oAtZjp5ji73zPEvmoO14mevuXzIDUdb6Ac9W13SPOXmzL5NflZkH0HxLp0v4dT9UwEHDV0wSZ1qusv09bIKkUliWs4%3D&u=LHuflw_1TAib_lgCu2JvQw%2Fh0>
"SeaChar.Org...positive tools for carbon negative living"

On Sun, Nov 22, 2015 at 12:58 AM, Ronal W. Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net
> wrote:

> Professor Jain
>
> 1.   Thank you for a tremendously useful document.  Especially that you
> (Elsevier?, TERI?) have made it available on a non-fee basis (for a *SHORT
> time).*
>
> 2.    I am a little surprised (and delighted) that I received this on the
> climate change list.   I am alerting four other lists who will also find
> this most useful.
>
> 3.    To me, interested in both climate change (through biochar - not
> mentioned) and stoves, the most important sentence in your exceedingly
> thorough (161 cites) is this partial paragraph in Section 2.3.1 (emphases
> added):
>
>    *“The energy expenditure in the form of fuel for boiling and
> evaporating water is calculated by standardizing the amount of raw fuel
> with fuel moisture content, ambient temperature, **charcoal formed fuel
> and calorific value of fuel and charcoal. This is called the ‘equivalent
> dry wood consumed’. Charcoal utilization after the cooking process in real
> households has not been validated in any of the studies. If the charcoal
> disposed by targeted population then the fuel consumption can be corrected.
>  ** If a certain community has a habit of utilizing the charcoal then …..*
>
> *the energy stored in the charcoal should be considered as a useful
> energy.” *
>
> 4.  As I know you know, there is more than one way to report the impact of
> charcoal production in stove comparisons.  Examples coming.
>
> 5.  I could not find an email address for Ms. (Dr?) Pooja Arora.  I intend
> to look up other papers she and you have published.  Please congratulate
> her as well.
>
>
> Again, thanks for a very useful stove assessment document.  I am aware of
> nothing like it.
>
> Ron  (first/past “stove” and “biochar” lists coordinator)
>
>
> On Nov 21, 2015, at 10:09 PM, S. Jain (Env. Engg.) <sureshjiitd at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
> We are sharing with you an article on *Chronological development in
> cookstove assessment methods: Challenges and way forward*. We hope to
> receive your inputs and comments on the same.
>
>
> *Abstract*
>
> This review intended to collect and collate the information related to
> cookstove testing methodologies applied in lab and field conditions and
> their output in the form of energy and emission parameters. The important
> information related to progression of cookstove testing techniques was
> segregated in order to understand the relationships in different indicators
> of cookstove performance and to understand the sources of uncertainty in
> emission data. The major research issue that has been dwelt upon in the
> recent literature is the establishment of relationship between lab and
> field results of cookstove performance. It is observed that controlled
> cooking test and kitchen performance test are the two field based tests
> which provide a better picture of a particular cookstove performance as it
> involves the user perspective. Misrepresentation of actual cookstove
> performance based on laboratory based testing puts the present standard
> protocols in question. Solutions have been put forward by some research
> studies; however a validation is needed through multiple scientific
> investigations conducted at various temporal and spatial scales. It has
> been observed that cookstove testing methodologies are still in their
> nascent stage compared to the research that has already been conducted for
> other sources where biomass combustion emissions have studied thoroughly.
> Still the shift in focus of upcoming research studies towards field based
> integrated cookstove testing methodologies has the potential to drive
> future cookstove research in the new direction.
>
>
> We are providing you with the following personal article link, which will
> provide free access to your article, and is valid for 50 days, until
> January 10, 2016
>
> http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1S4Na4s9HvhN9u
>
>
> Best regards,
> Suresh Jain, Ph.D.,
>
> Professor & Head,
> Department of Natural Resources
> TERI University, New Delhi - 110 070 / India
> https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_jfHgNcAAAAJ&hl=en
>
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