[Stoves] Clean coal burning stoves Re: History of clean Chinese stove development.

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Paul

Thanks for that vote supporting common sense and equity. 

>The issue is that low grade coal is able to be burned cleanly in
sufficiently inexpensive cookstoves for the climate and culture.  

I take issue with the term 'low grade coal'. The term 'low quality', when I
investigated what it meant back in the day, has nothing to do with its
ability to burn cleanly. That surprised me. I though perhaps it was full of
sulphur or something. No, it only refers to having high volatiles as a % of
total mass. It does not even refer to heat content per kg being above or
below some arbitrary value. It just refers to coal with more than 20%
volatiles (on a dry basis). That's it. 

We don't need to point out that 'low quality' coal can be burned cleanly. In
other words we don't need to say "even low quality coal can be burned
cleanly". High or low, if the burner is not matched to the fuel, then the
result will be a 'low quality burn'. The same applies to LPG (which can be
made to burn in a very smoky fashion) and ethanol (frequently with high CO)
kerosene (both) and pellets, which is just a form of wood or crop material.

The thing to fight against (and it is literally a fight) is the
characterisation of some fuels as clean and others as dirty. Clean and dirty
are terms of prejudice, often misapplied to people, cultures, environments,
emissions, books and language. Nothing new under the sun, eh?

Once more thing: 

>Note that those Mongolian stoves have an important function for household
heating, 

They are cooking stoves that heat the homes as well. Stoves are often
cooking 12-14 hours a day.

Regards

Crispin

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