[Stoves] Second article on clean cooking forum

[Nikhil Desai]

Crispin:

It is not the fuel that is inherently safe or unsafe, but the whole fuel
cycle including the equipment and operator practices.

I went to an ethanol refinery (sugarcane based) in Malawi to look into
Gelfuel economics. Unlike Malawi, ethanol as cooking fuel is not tested in
India, the delivery chains cannot possibly compete with LPG for the
household market. LPG subsidies have proven to be effective means of
scaling up.

Nikhil

On Nov 4, 2017, at 11:20 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <
crispinpigott at outlook.com> wrote:

Dear Anil



“Government of India (GOI) is pushing very aggressively for liquid
petroleum gas

(LPG) as a rural household fuel. With 90% of it being imported, local
renewable

sources outlined in this article will be a better choice. Not only will it
save foreign

exchange, but will provide large scale employment in rural areas.”



I think your point is well made. LPG is not safer than ethanol, and can be
burned just as cleanly (if the device is properly designed).



You are using an alcohol mixed with water in high proportion. Are you
heating the water to release the ethanol and leaving the water behind? If
not, do know if this has been tried?



An approach taken by several manufacturers is to use a solid, porous sponge
as a retaining mechanism. I happen to have worked with a version of this.
It definitely works as an accident preventing mechanism. The only problem I
found was that designers felt that ‘alcohol is a clean fuel’ and didn’t put
much effort into the combustor to see that it really was clean-burning.



Similarly there is a methanol stove producer in Africa that developed a
vastly superior version of his product by using a contextual development
test. That product went from an under-powered and smelly burner to a
powerful and extremely clean one and is now in production.



At some point in the past I was approached by a sugar mill looking for ways
to use about 100 different types of alcohol that were distilled from their
ethanol plant. Surely you also have access to these dregs? I never had a
chance to work with the dregs so I don’t know what lovelies came from a
good or bad flame. Maybe you have some experience with that.



Regards
Crispin







*From:* Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
<stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org>] *On Behalf Of *nari phaltan
*Sent:* 4-Nov-17 07:47
*To:* Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
*Subject:* [Stoves] Second article on clean cooking forum



www.nariphaltan.org/alcohol.pdf
<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nariphaltan.org%2Falcohol.pdf&data=02%7C01%7Ccrispinpigott%40outlook.com%7C86bb8ce8846a4219053f08d5237a518c%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636453930619969281&sdata=P4qIKFRN%2Fkxg3GXkPmdoF8tnaEkqATR1YZ7yPkh4lUk%3D&reserved=0>



Your feedback and comments are welcome.



Anil
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