[Stoves] News: National Geographic on promotion of gas stoves over improved woodstoves - in Guatemala

Gordon West gordon.west at rtnewmexico.com
Mon Sep 4 06:40:17 CDT 2017


Ron,

We would be very pleased if you came for a visit! No problem fixing you up with some 240V gas for you car, too.

I copied Bill above, his email is:  wmknauss at gmail.com <mailto:wmknauss at gmail.com>

Gordon West
The Trollworks

An entrepreneur sees problems as the seeds of opportunity.





> On Sep 4, 2017, at 1:06 AM, Ronal W. Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Gordon:
> 
> 	This picking up on your last sentence invitation to collaborate.   I am interested in all you describe below, but also on material I found on your interesting wildfire mitigation applications of biochar.  I worked on a similar successful Colorado legislative effort last year - and have a chance again this coming week.
> 
> 	I would add Bill Knauss - but I couldn’t find an email address.  I just re-read a nice Sept. 2014 input by Erin Rasmussen in the biochar list on Bill’s work
> 
> 	I have been working on char-making stoves for about 25 years - and was the first to write about what are now called TLUDs in an earlier Tom Miles’ bioenergy list in late1995.  I was the first coordinator of both the stoves list (in 1996) and (in 2005) the biochar list  (and am still listed as a moderator of both).  I am on the USBI Board and a good friend of Tom Miles.
> 
> 	I am trying to concentrate these days on policy aspects of biochar for its CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removal) properties - especially on the list called “Geoengineering”.  But I started my char-making stove work as a result of working for USAID in Khartoum.  Sudan has been ruined by charcoal making - so I have a fairly extensive background in both developing country stove and biochar activities.
> 
> 	I have never been interested in forming either a stove or biochar company - as I don’t consider myself at all a good business man.  But I suspect I can help your efforts in several ways.  For one,  I have been in some contact with the Mexican biochar fellow who came to Corvallis.
> 
> 	 I list myself as “Larson Consulting”  - but haven’t charged anyone for decades - and think of myself mostly as a fully-active retired former Professor.  I write because I think we might be ale to help each other a good bit. 
> 
> 	I have an all-electric car that can get me cheaply to visit you - but I would need a 240 volt outlet to get back to a free outlet in Truth and Consequences, should you think a visit might be profitable to you and Bill. 
> 
> Ron
>    303-526-9629
> 
> 
>> On Sep 3, 2017, at 3:42 PM, Gordon West <gordon.west at rtnewmexico.com <mailto:gordon.west at rtnewmexico.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Frank,
>> 
>> My colleague/mentor Bill Knauss, and I, are working on biochar/heat systems that are currently more scaled and adapted to developed countries than to undeveloped ones. The reason for this is that we need to financially support our work as it is all personally bootstrapped - no grants or NGO or government support. We have in prototype a system where a rural U.S. community could process forest thinnings and agricultural residues into densified feedstocks, supporting forest restoration, building heating, water heating, and cooking. Some of the objectives there are large scale CO2 sequestration, avoidance of fossil fuel use, enhancement of local economies, water conservation, and increase of soil productivity. 
>> 
>> Bill’s entry into the field was focused on rural Mexican communities, however, and that is still in our field of interest. Just across the border from Bill’s house is the very poor community of Palomas MX, where they have only propane for fuel (it costs a buck to cook a dollar’s worth of beans). Our smallest unit, a batch TLUD, is capable of operating for up to three hours on a charge of pecans shells (available for only the cost of hauling from the farms in the Mesilla Valley). Bill has fitted a kettle barbecue, a plancha cooktop, a water hear exchanger, and an air heat exchanger to the base unit - meaning that a family can cook, heat water, and heat their home while making biochar. There is a project ongoing by Border Partners where the locals are using the biochar to improve their gardening capability. Bill’s concept to get beyond the cost barriers is to make a deal with families where they get a unit at no cost, they get the pecan shell feedstock provided at no cost, and they collect and return the biochar produced until they have paid for the unit. After that it is all “profit” for them (to borrow a somewhat inappropriate term from Capitalism). No loans with interest, no upfront costs for the “customers”. We have similar communities in our ‘developed’ country, a prime example being the native Americans of the Southwest.
>> 
>> I cook on a Charbecue (as we are calling them) once or twice a week out on the porch, even in the winter. The unit lights up in seconds with no visible smoke and shuts down automatically when the pyrolysis zone reaches the bottom of the cylinder. By ‘shuts down’, I mean that the small 12vdc computer fan controlling primary airflow is turned off. During the process, the pyrolysis temp can be controlled and the syngas production varied to provide a range of cooking temps. We have not yet tested the emissions, but would like to. I expect we are doing well in that regard, since we do have the ability to control secondary combustion air as well as the primary.
>> 
>> Our feedstocks are most commonly wood chips, pecan shells, and fuel pellets. 
>> 
>> Bill and I are just completing a second prototype of a slightly larger TLUD that operates continuously, not in batches. We took our first rudimentary prototype to Aprovecho in 2016, and also to the biochar conference in Oregon right after, and a few folks on this list saw it work, along with a Charbecue. The continuous unit is designed to make heat at a building or greenhouse scale. Our next project is somewhat larger, and will use the heat from burning the syngas to dry biomass feedstock, which will then be pelletized or briquetted, bagged, and distributed to be feedstock for the Charbecues and building heaters. I know I have drifted quite far from cook stoves, yet this larger system will provide dry and uniform feedstock for cookstoves, which is one way of solving the problem of successfully operating low tech and inexpensive units by individuals.
>> 
>> I feel that our approach can be adapted to serve most any circumstance around the world.
>> 
>> Bill and I welcome anyone who would like to participate in our efforts.
>> 
>> Gordon West
>> The Trollworks
>> 
>> An entrepreneur sees problems as the seeds of opportunity.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Sep 2, 2017, at 9:46 PM, Frank Shields <franke at cruzio.com <mailto:franke at cruzio.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Dear Gordon,
>>> 
>>> I believe the TLUD technology is an excellent stove to do research on. It being batch feed means the biomass must be laid out correctly at the beginning.  Not sure how you plan on approaching the ‘development of technologies’ but I’m thinking the structure, physical properties, packing properties, void space for air flow and chemical make-up are all constituents to monitor and adjust when optimizing biomass for combustion. I just retired from testing organic biomass for over forty years and know a lot of test methods that might be useful to you. If you could explain more on what you are doing (on this site or by personal E-mail) and if you think I might be of some help with test methods -Let me know. I welcome the change! 
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> 
>>> Frank     
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Sep 2, 2017, at 5:05 PM, Gordon West <gordon.west at rtnewmexico.com <mailto:gordon.west at rtnewmexico.com>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I have been mostly lurking here for many months reading the posts and looking for bits that have relevance to our development of various TLUD technologies, which we are interested in integrating with the objectives of you other globally conscious biomass/biochar proponents.
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> 
>>> Frank
>>> Frank Shields
>>> Gabilan Laboratory
>>> Keith Day Company, Inc.
>>> 1091 Madison Lane
>>> Salinas, CA  93907
>>> (831) 246-0417 cell
>>> (831) 771-0126 office
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> franke at cruzio.com <mailto:franke at cruzio.com>
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
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