[Stoves] Stoves for School Kitchen

[Tony Vovers]

Dear Stoves experts I am looking for some advice and help from experts in
the field on a specific project.

Cooking Stoves for a School

 

Currently this international school in Indonesia is using Rocket style
cookstoves with sawdust as fuel source. (and some used timber/bamboo)

Typical daily activity is to prepare food for up to 600 people, smaller
breakfast, full on lunch.

The stoves are used for all types of cooking, typically in large pots
20-40lt. There are up to 10 stoves running at any one time in a covered but
not indoor area.

Most of the stoves are constructed from bricks with some metal gratings

The current cookstoves were a part of a previous environmentally focused
student lead project.

 

The key issues are: 

The rocket stoves though not very labor intensive are normally not
functioning even close to original designs in practice with variable output
and quite often loss of the "rocket" during burn.

The kitchen staff do not have a lot of time to devote to maintenance and
operation, they need a stable and repeatable solution.

The current stoves are not very efficient creating considerable smoke,
attempts to add some forced air as both primary and secondary air have been
largely unsuccessful (too complicated to control)

 

This link shows some pictures of current setup:

https://goo.gl/photos/6PfARtHjAYwB66oo8

 

 

I have been following this list now for last 6 months or so and reviewing
with interest many of the projects in particular the TLUD concepts and some
of the innovative use of venturi from both air and water(steam) and am
looking for some advice/ideas to move ahead with a better concept and
direction for both the stoves and maybe the fuel in this application.

 

Key design points for up to 10 stoves:

Sawdust as fuel source

Fast load and start

2-4 hours of efficient burn time (prefer continuous feed if practical for
some units)

20-40Liter Cook Pots or Wok of similar size.

Ability to adjust or divert heat as temperature control

Simple maintenance and control, long stove life

Control of effluent / exhaust in the work area - we are thinking in terms of
chimneys or ducting. 

Current stoves vent around the pot.

Fuel - is it worth to add steps (pelletizing?) to the fuel preparation

 

Soft features:

Ability to use instrumentation and control for development of project and
student training on the use of advanced cook stoves, on use of BioFuels for
cooking and Biochar creation and to develop the best in class design for
this kitchen.

Primary& Secondary air measurement and control

Monitoring/Observing the burn real time (hard to see under the pot:))

Burn efficiency (thermal and chemical) monitoring/measurement and effluent
testing, both gases and solid waste

Overall energy efficiency - low / no use of external power (electricity)
preferred but not a showstopper

 

Longer term if project is successful simpler designs would be rolled out to
neighboring school and community facilities as currently the sawdust is
available as a local "waste" product. It is very likely that existing TLUD
designs can fit the community needs but some convincing is needed for the
local community.

 

I understand that this is a little away from the typical focus of this group
but there is no doubt that at the moment Indonesia has a massive "burning"
problem affecting health and well being of people and animals. We want to
increase students knowledge and interest in the real opportunities that
managed burning and Biochar creation could have over the current practices
of open fires for both cooking and disposal of organic waste. 

 

For sure whatever we end up doing will be shared with this (stoves)
community.

We expect some or all of this project to be student lead or student
involved.

Some key questions:

Is TLUD the recommended solution type for this application or is some other
approach more suitable?

How to maintain cooking efficiency but include exhaust duct/chimney in the
design? 

If continuous feed or in-situ reloading is not feasible is there some kind
of quick change design that would allow cooking to resume with minimal
downtime between burns?

Is there something that could be done with multiple stoves to simplify
design (ducting?)

Are bricks and mortar a suitable building material or should the focus move
to steel?

How to efficiently "tune" a stove for efficiency - correct amounts of
primary, secondary air. Previous local experiments are inconclusive as there
have been far too many variables.

Is sawdust a suitable fuel?? or should it be compressed/pelletized for use??

 

Tony Vovers 

+62 (813) 3888 9062

 

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