[Stoves] Tajiki cotton stalks

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Biomass Burners

This is a picture of a common fuel used In rural Tajikistan. It is cotton stalks harvested after the crop is in. The stack is about six feet high 1.8m.

This fuel lights and burns very easily and is often found to contain some cotton and small dry leaves. To heat a home with this fuel is difficult in that it burns very readily as fast as possible and therefore doesn't last long. It is common to co-fire it with 'tapak' (dung) from one animal or another. I have seen goat and cattle dung used. In Pamir they use yak dung.

Dung is generally considered not to be a fuel that burns well enough on its own to be reliable for heating or cooking. Part of the reason is the way they light and refuel the stove. In general the fuel is loaded and ignited from the door end. This creates the maximum possible amount of smoke and wastes the most energy. Adding fuel on top of the fire ‎of course continues the loss.

When mixed with cotton stalks the dung burns much better basically because the flame is sustained by the ‎cotton stalks and the dung provides combustible smoke.

Stoves that will burn these two fuels need to have a capacious chamber, but must not kill the combustion quality by being cold or allowing through too much excess air.

Regards
Crispin



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