[Stoves] Trip to New Mexico - Part 2

[Ronal W. Larson]

List with ccs

	This is to continue the brief up-date I started five days ago, with only a few notes then on the first day of my visit to see Gordon and Bill in Silver City,  New Mexico.  Apologies for the delay as other commitments came up.

	1.  To add to my first day (last Sunday’s - see below) notes:  
		a.  Gordon showed me a new farm that will be used to carry out some of their biochar (probably not stoves for awhile) activities.  He has recently plowed up 5 acres of a 17 acre farm - within the Silver City city limits.  Emphasis will be on demonstrating biochar.  Bill’s own home is full of biochar success signs - but none yet of a scientific type - as will the new farm.  This especially interesting because it is locally called “Chinese Gardens” - as it was used 100 years ago to feed local miners.  No use then of biochar.  Bill is developing a team that will include an education component
		b.  The evening meal at Bill’s home was cooked in the below mentioned “Charbeque”.  He easily maintained 350 F for slow-roasting a large piece of pork for several hours - essentially no tending.
		c.  This day I began to learn about Gordon’s long history in forest restoration.   Mostly under a non-profit group called “Trollworks” - name meaning a group of craftspeople - nothing to do with its negative connotation on lists like this one.
		d.  Also going by the name Gila WoodNet.   Gordon is developing a team.   He is chair of the local Green Chamber of Commerce. 
		e.  A website is in the works.  
		f.  Much more can/should be said about forest restoration - but that is for Gordon to expand on.  He has already successfully completed a large number of forest health improvement grants.  This is NOT a new topic for Gordon - and he has at least three years working on TLUDs (with Bill much longer).

	Day 2.  Monday.  This day entirely at Bill’s large building housing numerous stove construction and test/operation activities (welding, metal forming, etc.)  Mostly this day to show me the 4-5 types of TLUD units that have been built here.  The main interest from this list perspective has to be the continuous feed TLUD unit.  In some very rough testing (I seem to have lost the data),  I think we got about 7 seconds per degree C rise with about 5 liters in the Aprovecho-skirted pot (but not to be cited - too rough.  Other times near 11-24 seconds per degree in the WBT for other type units tested with pellets, wood chips, and pecan shells.  For the fan-assisted units the fuel chambers were about 4”, 6”, and 8” in diameter, and heights from 15 to 18 inches;  generally larger than we hear on this list.  No natural draft tests with this group. 

	Some observations on the (still under development) continuous unit:
		a.  Two augers -  one to push in horizontally from large nearby hopper.  Second one in center to push up vertically.  
		b.   Have a conical shape for the fuel chamber to minimize problem of bridging (I think 7” and 9” diameters).  The pyrolysis zone of course staying in roughly same vertical location.  
		c.  I don’t know the height of the produced char above the pyrolysis zone - but it is considerable - probably at least 10 inches and wider than 9 inches - to allow time for cooling.  
		d.   The char is “swept out” by a slowly rotating 3 (curved) vane apparatus - ending up in a 55 gallon drum after traveling through a 3 or 4 inch “downline” - with sealing a problem still.
		e.   It can be (and was) started up on a second day based on retained heat at/near the pyrolysis layer - without needing to clean out the apparatus and going through a new start-up.  Some smoke for a fraction of a minute until back to normal operation.
		f.  A nice looking flame, but with more sparking than most TLUDs - as the char is often being “jostled”.
		g.  I didn’t observe startup from scratch - but presume it is like all other TLUDs, with the auger system first used to get new pellets (or chips of shells) in place and then the augers started up again when the pyrolysis front has dropped to the desired part of the fuel chamber.  
		h.   None of the usual problems when the pyrolysis front drops to the bottom-located primary air entry level.
		i.  (To be confirmed by Bill - like all of this)   I think the secondary air (but not the primary) is preheated.
		j.   Still under development, but one unit already sold with understanding that further testing and development is the goal with that purchase.

	I have not seen as many other batch types of char-making units - up to much larger than the 55 gallon size we often see. One appropriate for institutions.  Very high efficiency I’m sure. Looks a lot like that at http://www.instove.org/ <http://www.instove.org/> - but the Gordon-Bill unit makes char.

	Several photos were taken - and I think Gordon and Bill will be able to share these soon

	Anyone know of any other continuous TLUD?


	3.  The 3rd day (Tuesday) I travelled with Bill across the border to small Mexican town called Puerto Palomas.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Palomas,_Chihuahua <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Palomas,_Chihuahua>.   High and northerly enough to get some snow - so wintertime heating makes char-making cook-stoves a good possibility.  Especially because this is a prime region for pecan production - whose (free) shells make good biochar.  I saw several stoves, some greenhouses with biochar, and the capability to possibly manufacture locally.  
	We briefly visited a local school which could use wintertime heat - and probably make money while heating both classrooms and a kitchen.  Bill has lived (until the past 3 months) in the nearby US town of Columbus (known in US history for raid by Pancho Villa 100 years ago).  
	I’ll write more on this on the biochar list - as this town seems to have less importance from the stove development side.  And will ask Andrew Heggie to separately show a few stove slides taken with our driver around town (Adrian) - one of the NM main stove and biochar contacts in Mexico.  He is both a regular maker and user of char-making stoves; a deportee from the US, whose kids go to school daily in the US.  A loss to the US.
	Good also to see a char-making plancha type stove at Adrian’s home - with same type of replaceable tall fuel containers - also able to use 4 up to 8 inch diameter fuel units.  I suppose there are other TLUD-planchas like this, but this the first I recall seeing.  Reported by Adrian to have useable heat distribution for cooking purposes - but I suspect quite low efficiency - which isn’t very important in their winter.


	In sum - it was a valuable trip for me - and I think I’ve described a group that will be new to most on this list.  As I said in item #3 below - this group is doing (well) all the things of interest to me:   char-making stoves, biochar for community development, and char-making for forest management.   I should have added “international development”.    The nearest group in some of these skills (and way ahead in measurements) is Aprovecho - but this group is way ahead in both TLUD design and (ahead of everyone??) on continuous feed TLUDs.

	More coming - but details I will leave to Gordon and Bill.  I am sure I could only scratch the surface of what they have been doing separately for many years and together for about 3 years.

Ron


> On Sep 11, 2017, at 8:01 AM, Ronal W. Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> List 
> 
> 1.  Four days ago I wrote:
>>>> 	I’m one of the two “interested” that Gordon mentions near the end.  Hope to be talking personally to Bill and Gordon in NM within a few days.  Anyone have specific questions I can try to answer?
> 
> 2.  Yesterday about 10 hours with Gordon and Bill and (shorter time) with three of their friends.  Saw both their char broiler (half-dozen sold) and the larger continuous feed TLUD in operation(one contract in place to a New Mexico University.  Both impressive in operation.  More coming - as I still am learning.
> 
> 3.   The main reasons for wanting to visit is that their interests overlap so much with my own:  char-making stoves, biochar for community development, and char-making for forest management.  
> 
> 4.  Re the last - on Friday, I attended another meeting of the Colorado legislature’s special Committee on wildfire.  The word “biochar” came up several times - but no new legislation obvious yet.
> 
> Ron
> 
> 

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