[Stoves] New Handbook for Biomass Cookstove Research, Design, and Development

Xavier Brandao xav.brandao at gmail.com
Sun Sep 17 16:57:16 CDT 2017


Dear Tom,

 

To reply to your message, I think I would be ready to participate to the
making of such a handbook, if there are other people interested as well.

I think the effort would have to be led by an organization rather than an
individual: maybe a university or an NGO. I think we should make sure as
many people as possible, and from very different organizations, are involved
in this handbook.


Best,


Xavier

 

 

De : Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] De la part de
tmiles at trmiles.com
Envoyé : vendredi 25 août 2017 16:50
À : 'Discussion of biomass cooking stoves'
Cc : npenumetcha at cleancookstoves.org; ndesai at alum.mit.edu;
rchiang at cleancookstoves.org
Objet : Re: [Stoves] New Handbook for Biomass Cookstove Research, Design,
and Development

 

There has been a proposal on the list to write an alternative reference to
include topics and projects not included in the MIT study, alternative
interpretations of methods like WBT, and proposed methods which may be
different than those in development by the ISO Committee, etc. Who will lead
this effort? Who will outline the “handbook”? Who will write the chapters?
Who will edit the handbook and send the chapters out for review by qualified
peers? Who will edit the final version? 

 

Distribution and discussion is easy. Writing the content is the challenging
part. A place to start is the excellent reply Crispin made to a question I
posed some weeks ago. Who is willing to build on this and develop a document
that is useful to the target audiences?               

 

Tom

 

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Vahid Jahangiri
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2017 9:57 AM
To: Xavier Brandao <xav.brandao at gmail.com>; 'Discussion of biomass cooking
stoves' <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Cc: rchiang at cleancookstoves.org; npenumetcha at cleancookstoves.org;
ndesai at alum.mit.edu
Subject: Re: [Stoves] New Handbook for Biomass Cookstove Research, Design,
and Development

 

Hi Xavier, 

 

Thank you for your message.  

 

My initial comment surrounds WBT as it can be very misleading for
organization who are not stove experts and base their program decisions
based on this protocol.  WBT is very limited in terms of usability and  some
of the methodology is not even technically correct especially if it is being
conduced at a lab, not at the field.  In addition, working with regional
testing centers have been extremely frustrating. 

 

I have not had a chance to look at MIT study but it would be great to
discuss with various players on how we can collectively work together in
preparing the next research studies. 

 

Most important issue is that we have impact for the users and in order to do
so, we have to be objective. 

 

I am open to advancing the discussion with everyone. 

 

Thank you,

 

Vahid 

 

 

Vahid Jahangiri 

Deputy Director 

www.lifelinefund.org 

+12029975389 

  _____  

From: Xavier Brandao <xav.brandao at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2017 7:14:04 PM
To: 'Discussion of biomass cooking stoves'
Cc: psanders at ilstu.edu; ndesai at alum.mit.edu; dsweeney at mit.edu;
npenumetcha at cleancookstoves.org; rchiang at cleancookstoves.org;
lcordes at cleancookstoves.org
Subject: RE: [Stoves] New Handbook for Biomass Cookstove Research, Design,
and Development 

 

Dear all,

 

I think the initiative and effort to write about the state of stove R&D and
research is great. We need to analyse, and provide simple and clear design
advices to stove practitioners.

 

This handbook is supposed to show the current cookstove R&D
state-of-the-art. But still, I think this is not the right picture.

Or at least it is only a small part of the right picture.

 

Many important researcher works and names are left out of this paper.

I can not imagine a paper claiming to describe recent R&D wook on cookstoves
not mentioning Crispin Pemberton-Pigott nor his work even once. Not even one
single time. He is simply absent of the document.

Dean Still, in the meantime, is mentioned 18 times.

No one on this list will deny what Crispin did and is doing for stove
research, he has to be somewhere in the document.

 

I cannot understand that in August 2017 the MIT and GACC still publish,
again, a document that, again, vouches for the WBT. p 7 in the « 1.3
PERFORMANCE TESTING » chapter, only the WBT is mentioned! How is that
possible? What message are we conveying to new designers? What about the
past conversations about the WBT since the beginning of the year? What about
Ranyee admitting (like others do) that we have « moved beyond » the WBT?

How can people not think again that the GACC has actively worked to
publicize and promote the WBT, at the detriment of all the other protocols?

 

As Samer mentioned in his message to Neeraja Penumetcha, this paper mentions
almost uniquely U.S. stove researchers (p 4-5 of the document), at the
detriment of all the other researchers. How can it remain silent about the
astounding work from for example Europe, Central Asia, China, Indonesia? How
can it not even mention the state-of-the-art topics that were discussed at
length on this List?

 

Looking at the « TABLE 3: RECENT BIOMASS COOKSTOVE R&D PROJECTS THAT WERE
SURVEYED FOR THIS REPORT » one can only note that all the organizations are
from U.S.A. All of them. How can that not be considered like
ethnocentricity?

Is the state-of-the-art in the cookstove sector the recycling of old and
largely criticized work of the Aprovecho dating from 2007-2009?

 

ARC new products are mentioned many times (p 13, 18, 40, 41, 42). 

 

Other stove models, technologies, projects, research could, should have been
mentioned, at least once, for example:

*	Servals TLUDs - India
*	Paul Olivier stoves - Vietnam
*	China-made improved cookstoves - China
*	Vesto and other New Dawn Engineering stoves - Swaziland
*	Rocket Works stoves, Adrian Padt - South Africa
*	Silverfire new line of stoves - U.S., China
*	Rebecca Vermeer, Eco-Kalan stoves - Philippines
*	Roger Samson, Mayon Turbo stove - South Africa
*	Practical Action, CHF stoves - Sudan
*	CSI Indonesia Pilot stoves - Indonesia
*	Prime and Dr Nurhuda stoves - Indonesia
*	Ecochina Stove - El Salvador
*	Anglo Supra Nova stove - Indonesia
*	University of Adelaïde papers - Australia
*	CSI project papers - Indonesia
*	DUE conference papers - South Africa
*	GERES project papers - South-East Asia

 

This list is not exhaustive.

Crispin says that his Vesto and Roger Samson’s stove both out-perform a
Rocket stove quite handily, with the simmering ‘efficiency’ of a Vesto being
above 65%.

 

I think unfortunately, this D-Lab handbook is misrepresenting to outsiders
the actual current state of cookstove research.

 

I put Dan Sweeney in copy of this message. Dan, since you are a member of
the Stove List as well, I put you in copy: your contributions would be most
welcome.

Others on the list, your opinions would also help in this discussion.

 

Best regards,

 

Xavier

 

 

De : Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] De la part de
Paul Anderson
Envoyé : mardi 1 août 2017 16:19
À : Discussion of biomass cooking stoves; Doc Anderson
Objet : Re: [Stoves] New Handbook for Biomass Cookstove Research, Design,
and Development

 

Stovers,    (and placed on the   ePosts   at the  www.drtlud.com  website
for easy access and wider audiences)

This new publication is definitely worth some of your time to download
(free), save, and look at (at least scroll through and "read at your degree
of interest").   Good diagrams, and very nice summaries of the issues of
stove R&D and design.  

Download the full handbook here:
http://cleancookstoves.org/resources/517.html 

Of course I focused on the TLUD issues.  
1.  No glaring errors were noted.  (Opps, one is noted when I wrote the
content below).  

2.  There were some understatements that have background stories that would
be too detailed for this publication.
Example is on Page# 22 (22 of 36 digital sheets).

FUEL BATCH SIZE AND RELOADING IN GASIFIER STOVES
Users of batch-fueled cookstoves like TLUDs often wish to continue cooking
after the initial fuel 
batch has burned out. Adding new fuel to the stove causes it to switch from
operating in a TLUD 
mode to a conventional updraft gasifier mode (Figure 15).

That part is true.  But then it goes on about Tryner's work at CSU with
observed difficulties (correct) but does not say that that research put in a
substantial amount of new fuel all at one time (a major cause of the
difficulties).   

The continuing paragraph refers to Aprovecho results with a  TLUD-FA stove
(incorrectly reference to the Reed-Larson 1996 article about TLUD-ND stoves)
and states that performace is not compromised when: 

the user can meter in additional fuel through the door in a low-power
operating mode. 

Sorry, but in my opinion, there are serious compromises (some increase in
emissions including when each new amount of fuel hits the top of the
charcoal bed and shortening the stove life because of high temperatures from
air directly blowing on hot charcoal in the bottom).  Therefore, this
refueling is NOT good advice.   So, I would say that this is a glaring error
that unfortunately will be repeated over and over, with citation to this
publication.   But that is only my opinion.

3.  A few missed opportunities to make more complete statements:
    Example:  Page # 32 (34 of 36 digital sheets):

To achieve more turbulent flow without a fan, natural-draft cookstove
designers have added features 
to the interior geometry that suddenly change the flow path and create
turbulence in local 
mixing zones. 

Very true.   Then comes the example with a side-feed stick-burner stove
(rocket type, but not showing the rocket fuel shelf;  in fact, I do  not
recall seeing a full discussion of the true Rocket innovation by Winearski
to have the air entering under the burning tips of the sticks).

For example, the Envirofit G-3300 has a choke ring, like a large metal
washer, in the riser. The 
choke ring disturbs the flow of air and combustion gases and generates a
local mixing zone 
(Figure 20) (DeFoort et al., 2010.

Then there is reference to Natural Draft TLUDs, but only the stationary vane
that were pioneered by Kirk Harris (not mentioned) and attributed to
Aprovecho.

What was not mentioned is the "concentrator"  (disk or plate) that does
precisely the same thing as does a "choke ring"and it is the 
fundamental innovation of Wendelbo's Peko Pe TLUD (1990s) and Anderson's
Champion TLUD (2005).  
 
I hope that others will send comments about this publication that is worthy
of wide consideration by all "Stovers".

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype:   paultlud    Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 8/1/2017 6:36 AM, Neeraja Penumetcha wrote:

Biomass cookstove technology and performance have significantly improved
over the last decade. Yet entrepreneurs and designers trying to build a
better stove can still face a wide range of challenges. Design features that
improve performance can come with higher production costs or usability
challenges, for example. Enterprises often have limited resources for
research and development, but must produce higher performing, usable,
affordable technologies to stay competitive. R&D advancements that help
balance these requirements are often not translated into practical guidance
that is accessible to stove designers.
 
A new handbook aims to help designers and entrepreneurs by translating
recent R&D advances into practical approaches for improving biomass
cookstove performance, usability, and affordability. The Handbook for
Biomass Cookstove Research, Design, and Development, was developed in
partnership with MIT's D-Lab and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves,
with funding by UK aid from the UK government. Topics including ignition,
air, fuel, mixing, and materials are covered through a synthesis of research
findings and innovations from several different organizations. These
components of the cooking process are all highly interrelated, so the
handbook encourages consideration of these components together.
 
Download the full handbook here:
http://cleancookstoves.org/resources/517.html
 
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