[Stoves] A user-centered, iterative engineering approach for advanced biomass cookstove design and development

[lh cheng]

Another Chinese little project. Surely, it is cookstove, not heater. Too
expensive, 1500RMB (230 USD), in rural area, a big number, very big, no one
buy, not even one, in rural area. For user, many uncertainties to use new
type of stove. if free of charge, a trustworthy friend who is an expert
about this stove, that might be fine.

stove thing should be open-source ( just like Dr Anderson's Champion Stove
), DIY, or made by acquaintance, it is something about family, a cultural
thing, especially in country side. In city, electricity or LPG is enough.

a good approach for stove design maybe is that, basic knowledge of stove
design spread among people, and people help each other.

concerning "stove intervention", during 1959-1961 in China, more than 30
millions of people died because a stove intervention movement. and people
have memories.

best regards


2017-11-30 2:13 GMT+08:00 Nikhil Desai <pienergy2008 at gmail.com>:

> Paul:
>
> It's not worth getting excited over this paper, though I explain below I
> wholeheartedly commend the authors what ought to have been Stoves Lesson 1
> forty years ago. (They even refer to Manibog 1984, which started me off on
> formal research in stoves.)
>
> I note
>
> "The existing available semi-gasifier biomass cookstoves all lacked
> user-desired functions such as auto-ignition and flame adjustment. Field
> visits to homes near Beijing revealed that most homes with semi-gasifier
> stoves had suspended use due to breakage or difficulty using them for
> cooking. We identified several design features that led to frequent
> breakage, namely cracking of the inner combustion chamber wall and stove
> grate blockage from slag that formed due to high temperature combustion and
> inefficient ash removal. In addition, most semi-gasifer cookstoves required
> fuel loading from the top, a feature that made it impossible to add fuel
> during cooking and, according to stove users, greatly limited its
> functionality to meet daily cooking needs."
>
>
> Is it enough to say "Decades of disappointing stove intervention programs
> highlight the need for new approaches and development efforts"? Based on a
> study of 16 homes over a few weeks in summer-time with "structured and
> semi-structured interviews with primary cooks at 2 d and 6 weeks
> post-installation of the prototype stoves"?
>
> The conclusion "Our proposed design strategy can be applied to other stove
> development initiatives in China and other countries." should be read in
> combination with "The unique features of the particular semi-gasifier,
> biomass cookstove discussed here need not be directly transferable to other
> regions in China. Rather, the user-centered, iterative engineering design
> process presented could be replicated in other provinces and regions to
> identify optimal stove design that is responsive to the local context."
>
> Still, the most relevant observation - which need not have required this
> study - is simply this:
>
> " Stove designs (Tryner et al 2014 and 2016) that over-emphasize technical
> performance early in the stove development process limit the extent to
> which user input obtained later in the process—if sought—can lead to stove
> design modification. The user-centered and iterative engineering design
> approach we present prioritized local users’ preferences and aspirations,
> and sought to combine user input with high technical performance. Our
> results suggest that valuable engineering insights are gained in the early
> stages of stove design through targeted field-based data collection that
> yield information unattainable in the laboratory."
>
>
> Which is why the WHO/ISO TC-285 exercise is so immature, it needs to be
> aborted.
>
> I wonder who would digest and apply this lesson of user-centered iterative
> engineering method. I suspect you have, and perhaps others can claim such a
> trail of experience instead of just reporting WBT-based performance metrics
> as in the BAMG Catalog of stoves for GACC.
>
> I am afraid this paper might end up like Manibog's and various other stove
> evaluation reports that have repeatedly said, essentially, "User matters."
> It is only after determining the service standard (cooking and other tasks
> desired by the user) and the objective of an intervention (not necessarily
> limited to the efficiency and pollutant emissions, and in some contexts not
> even these) that a stove designer can go about designing a product.
>
> Large programs of such research, guided by competent and unbiased
> proponents., ought to have been generated when GACC began. It is still not
> too late; GACC just needs to be placed in a proper home, independent of its
> US masters.
>
> Nikhil
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 11:04 AM, Paul Anderson <psanders at ilstu.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> Ron,
>>
>> Not correct.   The stove type was not TLUD.  It was essentially a
>> trickle-feed forced air pellet heater (as in the home heating units) but
>> made at the size of a cooking stove.   Nice work, but not a TLUD and no
>> real chance to make charcoal because the pellets are burned to ash under
>> the streams of forced air.   It might become very successful.   Good
>> approach to designing changes.  But also heavy and expensive compared to
>> the TLUD stoves that are currently having great success in West Bengal.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
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