[Stoves] Wood is a very dirty, smoky fuel

[Frank Shields]

Greetings Stovers,

Crispin wrote:

>> 
>>     The first idea that has been
>>  overthrown is that ‘there are dirty fuels’. It was never
>>  true as the observations was based on the combustion
>>  technologies available at the time.
>>   Changing the technology has transformed the
>>  consequence.
>>     I was at a ProBEC conference once
>>  at which it was plainly stated that ‘wood is a smoky
>>  fuel’. I pointed out that we had far better combustors
>>  these days and that it was no
>>   longer true all the time. The reply was, “Well that is
>>  all interesting but wood is such a smoky fuel!”

Wood is a very dirty, smoky fuel. Thats because the stove ( solid fixed object) selected for use has a fixed and very narrow range of properties that must be met for it to burn cleanly. Properties outside that range burn dirty or do not burn at all. Once you have the chosen combustion chamber the fuel becomes the next limiting variable. Therefore this must be our next focus if we want to make continued improvements in combustion and emissions. There is a lot we can do.

The next 10 million dollars available should be spent on studying the different characteristics of biomass and finding those that effect combustion in our small units. Then finding the boundaries of biomass that burn cleanly in specific combustion chambers and including that data with the sale of the stove. 

We can then study fuels available in an area and determine the suitable stove. Or we know what is needed to modify the biomass so to best work in a specific stove.  This is true of all stoves and biomass (dung, pellets, pressed biomass, split-chipped-cubed-sized wood, etc). Testing for: moisture, size, carbon density, packing density, resins, non-fixed carbon and many more characteristics should be looked at for ranges that will still burn cleanly in specific combustion chambers. 

Money will continue to be wasted on foolish projects until this is approached as a ’science’ project and looking at the fuel is the ONLY next step. So we wait and talk….

Regards

Frank

Frank Shields
Gabilan Laboratory
Keith Day Company, Inc.
1091 Madison Lane
Salinas, CA  93907
FShields at keithdaycompany.com




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