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

Thu Nov 26 15:40:02 CST 2015

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 Wed, Nov 25, 2015 at 4:09 PM, Ronal W. Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
wrote:

> Art and ccs
>
>   Another message from you a little later said you would be creating (I
> think) a place to archive this series on how to report on TLUDs in a
> consistent and helpful way.  Thanks for that.
>
>   See inserts below.
>
>
> On Nov 25, 2015, at 12:18 PM, Art Donnelly <art.donnelly at seachar.org>
> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> *RWL1: I have never built an Anila-type (which can produce char) - because
> of an inability to control power levels.  Was that what bothered you?** I
> was unhappy with my emissions profile, however there is much to recommend
> this approach, especially in the ability to use very marginal input
> materials. The poor emissions were directly related to the inability to
> control power. My brief experiments with Rocket Gasifiers was an attempt to
> solve the control problem by side loading the fuel, while introducing
> secondary air below a constrictor lid. **  Can you expand on what you
> mean by a Rocket-Gasifier. **You are familiar with this approach and I
> could point to several variations, but in it's simplest form this is what
> Jed Guinto is doing.  However my experiments also included a retort
> pyrolized with the heat from a rocket elbow. **  Doesn’t seem likely to
> produce char very effectively.  Not batch I presume.  **Bottom line is
> that neither of these approaches is an easier way of making high qualilty
> char. And in my experiments neither of these hybrid approaches burned as
> clean as a TLUD.*
>
> 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.
>
> *[RWL2:  You have shown me this one from Viet Nam - which is very handsome
> - and uses a small fan, so there is power level control.  How much control
> have you found with your use of bamboo and wood?  TDR of five possible?   I
> believe this has 150 mm ID  (approx 6”).  Can you report the stove height
> and max and min operating times you have been able to achieve**? **Sorry,
> I gave you the wrong impression. All I meant to say was that the
> experiences I am sharing relate specifically with my experience of using
> wood and bamboo in Paul Anderson style TLUDs. The Estufa Finca or the
> Prototype stove I am working on are Natural Draft TLUDS. Utilizing the
> principle of "Early Secondary Air" as promoted by Kirk Harris, I am getting
> a great TDR, speaking as a cook, but I would imagine that it is more in the
> range of 3>1. This is also thanks to having a very effective primary air
> damper.  The Olivier stove is everything Paul says it is, when utilizing
> rice husk. The blue flame is amazingly like that of a gas stove. His is a
> fantastic example of the kind of success you can with having a
> mirco-gasifier stove with consistent performance, by designing the optimal
> stove for the preferred input material.*
>
>
> 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
>
> *[RWL3:  This must be for min and max fan settings - or does this stove
> have manual power level control?. **Answered above.**  Good data.  Can
> you report the duration that goes with each of these temperatures?* *TLUDs
> have a loop-sided pyrolysis temperature curve. You could measure that curve
> using thermo-couples and a k-type digital thermometer. I have done that
> with the 55-gallon J-ROs, but not my smaller cook-stoves so I can not give
> you an accurate answer.*
>
>
>    - 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.
>
> *[RWL4:   Can you expand on why “terrible”?** We got a Tier 1 rating on
> an earlier version of the prototype in July. That has improved since then
> but not by enough to be bragging about. Problem is with a batch loaded
> gasifier I can not take fuel out of the chamber for the simmer phase, like
> you can with a Rocket stove or a three-stone fire and I can only turn down
> so far with out extinguishing the flame.*
>
>
> 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.
>
> *RWL5:   I am perfectly satisfied with what Jim Jetter and EPA are already
> reporting.  I cannot understand anyone ever saying that char produced
> should neither be measured nor reported.*
> * Controlled cooking tests need to report time spent in front of the stove
> - and someone should report on tests that limit the amount of time that can
> be spent there.*
>
> 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.
>
> *RWL6:  Most important of all (hard for some to believe) is to place the
> ground for climate reasons (the topic of Prof. Jain’s paper).*
>
> 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.
>
> *[RWL7:  Glad you used the term “biochar” here (= soil amendment).  I
> don’t think we should call char used for many purposes as biochar.*
>
> * Art:  Thanks for all you are doing with biochar and stoves.  Especially
> moderating this new web site.*
>
> *Ron*
> I hope my answers clarify what I was trying to say.
>

I also hope that like me you have the chance to celebrate and give thanks
today for the gift that is our bountiful earth.  . Everyday is a good day
for thanks giving.

>
>
> Art Donnelly
> President SeaChar.Org <http://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 <http://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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