[Stoves] "Young-adult" TLUD research Re: List of woods for TLUDs?

[Nikhil Desai]

Ron:

You may have water boiling tests in the lab to validate your contention, but from personal experience of cooking - with charcoal, different kinds of briquettes, and even some woods - I tend to think that fuel density can significantly affect cooking patterns. 

I think field experiments on usable and used stoves, in different contexts, for performance metrics relevant to cooks, and locally used fuels, ought to settle the point. 

Not the usual suspects. No matter how scientistic. 

I am talking about different densities of the same fuel type. If you meant hard woods vs. corn stalks vs. dung-straw cakes, I have no personal experience. I do think, however, that the size and arrangement of fuel pieces and the shape, size of the stove, affect cooking. 

Conversely, the specific type of cooking desired affects the density of fuels chosen and their arrangement. I remembered from my childhood how for some large-scale cooking, a hole would be dug of a particular shape and size, then woods would be stacked in a particular sequence on the side, interspersed with straw or stalks. 

I happen to again be near a small village in a different part of India and just queried two men about cooking and heating practices. All fuel is woody biomass, fixed and portable stoves, both outside and inside. They confirmed how different fuel/stove types and desired form/scale of cooking are interactive choices. 

Here is one more constructive proposal in response to Robert van der Plas' suggestion for going back to the drawing board: 

Instead of the linear, one-way thinking of fuels and stove to determine efficiency and emission rates, think of an interactive process where a cook optimizes selection of timing, duration, food ingredients and thermal energy use, fuel types and stove types, fuel collection and handling. 

To produce a dish. To eat or store. 

I happen to be increasingly convinced - by the comments of Crispin, Paul, Todd, and others who have thought more of the users - that much of the other work has been a waste of time and money. It may have advanced science but pushed people behind. 

Enough smoke. Forest fires are sustainable, inefficient bioenergy. 

Nikhil 

"There is a good reason to not have separate control of PA and SA.   That reason is the user, the cook. " - Dr Paul Anderson