[Stoves] Rice husk stove and rice husk gasifier

Paul Anderson psanders at ilstu.edu
Fri Oct 14 12:24:04 CDT 2016


Chris,

I was a univ. professor for 30 years, and I know a few things about 
student projects.  Great as learning experiences, and sometimes (seldom) 
a significant breakthrough will occur.   Best wishes to your student.  I 
want to encourage stove work that is useful.  So I ask questions:

1.  Why reject the use of a small fan or blower?  Just to make things 
harder to accomplish?  Or is it financial?  But fans and small amounts 
of electricity are inexpensive and easy to obtain, and give tremendous 
advantages for the stove user and for the likelyhood of success for a 
project.

2.  Mayon Turbo:  natural draft.  reputation of requiring the user to be 
nearby to frequently tap the side of the unit to get the husks to 
flow.   So, is "attention by the user to the stove operations" to be a 
factor in the stove design?

3.  The world leader in rice husk gasification is Eng. Alexis Belonio.  
See his writings (many are on my website  www.drtlud.com ).   Good 
science and good research starts with a thorough review of the 
literature.  Ask her:  "Has the literature been reviewed?"

4.  Suggestion:  Contact Marc Pare (see   http://rvit.co/ ).  About 5 
years ago as a student at Georgia Tech University he was on a student 
project specifically about rice husk gasification with natural draft for 
stoves.  Twice I visited the campus, student group, and met the 
professor.   No published report because the project was not successful 
(except as a great learning experience and course credit for the 
students.)  Marc went on to do larger gasification projects with rice 
husks in Vietnam.  And now his is an engineer in the Seattle area.   I 
am sending  him a copy of this message.

Please keep us posted.

Best wishes,

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 10/14/2016 7:05 AM, Christopher Bradnum wrote:
> Dear List Member
>
> I am looking for some help on a project one of my students is starting.
>
> I have a Taiwanese student who would like to develop a passive (not electric fan) rice husk stove for her home as her major project for the BEng in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nottingham. Depending on the success of the project, her family may consider starting a business manufacturing such stoves within their community. Her family own a rice farm and they have a lot of material that they can convert into energy. They already have a stove (sorry I don't have the photographs of this) which they use for some of their cooking needs. It has a deep central 'pot like' component (+/- 750mm tall X 300mm diameter) with a grid at its base which holds the burning rice husk. This 'pot' is located inside a larger vessel. At the base a fan directs air in below the central rice burning 'pot'. A separate pot holder unit is placed on top of the whole configuration. This has, what looks like, an inverted colander at its centre through which the flame reaches the cooking pot. The stove
> The student returns home in December and will complete some rudimentary tests to get a baseline for the efficiency and emissions given off by the stove. I will also get her to complete the heterogeneous cooking test developed by SeTAR under Prof Harold Annegarn and Crispin Pemberton-Piggots' supervision at the University of Johannesburg.
> Leading up to that testing I want her to get on with a bit of research, so I thought to turn to this very excellent group and ask for some help (standing on the shoulders of giants...).
> Has anyone on the list worked with rice husk as a fuel source and does anyone have any research work we can look at as a starting point? Particularly using rice husks as a fuel for cooking.
>
> It seems to me, through superficial online perusing, that a rice husk gasifier might be a better utilisation of the raw material. If it is a good system to convert rice husk into energy I would like to make and test one of these too. Does anyone have research around rice husk gasifiers that I could start investigating? Is this a good or not so good use of the fuel?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee
> and may contain confidential information. If you have received this
> message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it.
>
> Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this
> message or in any attachment.  Any views or opinions expressed by the
> author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the
> University of Nottingham.
>
> This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an
> attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your
> computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email
> communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as
> permitted by UK legislation.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
>






More information about the Stoves mailing list