[Stoves] TLUD progress in West Bengal .... was Re: Declaration about Woodgas

[Nikhil Desai]

Paul:

Permit me to interject an observation. What Crispin calls "an expected
working life" is an economic concept.

Beyond some testing for durability, operating instructions for maintenance
and repairs, there is no fixed working life.

This is true of all physical investments - hydro plants to Trump Tower.
Financiers need a fixed measure of "life" in order to compute a
depreciation schedule, and so do regulators. Household durable goods do not
fall in that category. I have a microwave that is 20+ years old, though a
new one will pay for itself in convenience and energy efficiency within a
year. Unregulated investments on a larger scale depend on newer
technologies - some may render an old technology obsolete in 10 years, some
in 50.

That Deganga stoves have finished four years of virtual daily usage and
that sales rates are growing is, in my books, a confirmation of ground
performance, whatever the efficiencies.

Two questions: a) has any customer bought a SECOND stove of the same kind?
b) has anybody INCREASED stove use - larger families or reduction in
purchased foods or cooking some food for sale? c) have you got any requests
for larger stoves, including for commercial food preparers?

Higher utilization rates simply mean capital costs are spread out over more
hours. Durability and O&M are always balanced against utilization rates. It
doesn't matter what the "nameplate" capacity and lifetimes are; whether the
stove is used is of utmost importance.THEN and only then can one figure out
why efficiencies or emission rates are different - if so - and what do
about them.

Waiting for pictures and more observations. I too agree with Crispin, "Having
one working example is always 10 times better than talking up the first
one." I would say a thousand times; that is when the rubber meets the road,
and all the unknowable wrinkles get straightened out.

Nikhil

On Wed, Nov 15, 2017 at 1:13 PM, Paul Anderson <psanders at ilstu.edu> wrote:

> Crispin,
>
> Sorry for the week's delay in responding.  See below:
>
> Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
> Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
> Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072 <(309)%20452-7072>
> Website:  www.drtlud.com
>
> On 11/8/2017 8:42 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:
>
> Dear Paul
>
>
>
> That is very encouraging news about the project. I am happy to hear sales
> are 3000 per month. Do you have an expected working life for the stove?
> What parts fail first?
>
> In the pilot project in Deganga, the earliest stoves have completed over 4
> years of virtually daily usage (with annual confirmations by the carbon
> credit verifiers).   This is with maintenance and repairs.   The major
> parts have many years of life ahead of them.   The repairs are on the grate
> and on the fuel chamber (innermost cylinder).   The project purchases the
> produced charcoal, so the users are quite good at dumping out the char at
> the end of the pyrolysis stage, thereby helping protect the grate and lower
> sidewalls.
>
> The fuel cylinder has a "sacrificial cylinder" that is inside the main
> wall of the fuel cylinder.   When it is showing stress, it is removed (one
> screw) and inverted so that the less-stressed upper portion becomes the
> bottom area.  I am asking the project implementer (MB) about the frequency
> of the repair work.  The cylinders are produced with seam welding of
> stainless steel sheets.  Look good and hold up well.
>
>
>
> Are you aware of any production issues such as quality control as the
> numbers get larger?
>
> The stoves are assembled at one location (with quality supervision) from
> components from 5 different suppliers whose components are clearly
> comparable with each shipment.   There is surplus production capacity in
> the Kolkata area to greatly expand the number of pieces of each component.
>
>
>
> I believe this project needs to be written up in a way that provides an
> analysis of the conditions that must be in place to go forward. Having one
> working example is always 10 times better than talking up the first one.
>
> I agree.  Just need to find the time to do the write-up.   I hope to do it
> before ETHOS.   By January 2018 the project will be passing 50,000 stoves
> in use, and (I anticipate) that the number of stoves per month will be over
> 4000, with new expansions of the project coming on-line as fast as funding
> will allow.   (I will discuss funding issues in a later message.)
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> Thanks
> Crispin
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Only yesterday did I return from India (GACC Forum and then 9 days at the
> TLUD (woodgas) project in West Bengal near Kolkata.  Passed 40.000 Champion
> TLUDs, and increasing at 3000+ per month.  More messages will follow.
>
> Paul
>
>
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