[Stoves] Improving cooking with charcoal

Sun Nov 3 09:59:06 CST 2019

Liat,  Kevin, Crispin

	See inserts.

> On Nov 3, 2019, at 6:12 AM, K McLean <info at sun24.solar> wrote:
> 
> Regardless of the pros and cons of making and cooking with charcoal, charcoal will be used for cooking by many, many people for decades to come.  Isn't the vast majority of charcoal produced in the same dirty way it was produced a fifty years ago?  And doesn't the vast majority cook with charcoal essentially the same way as fifty years ago?  Let's find more methods to improve both production and usage, methods that people will readily adopt.  Kevin
> 
[RWL1:  I agree with all.  I hope the emphasis in this thread can only be on usage (see thread name - “Improving cooking with charcoal”).   So below,  I excise everything except Kevin’s surprising announcement from four countries  (Zambia,  Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya) ]that adding rocks and extra grates (no cost and low cost respectively) apparently gave MUCH (>40%) improved cooking performance.   We still don’t have an explanation why.  Kevin is doing more tests.  Can anyone else help with trying to optimize these two new stove ideas?

	(more below - also from today)
> 
> 
> On Sun, Nov 3, 2019 at 7:42 AM Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com <mailto:crispinpigott at outlook.com>> wrote:
> Dear Friends
> 
>  
> 
> I like the discussion about what to test for, and what to measure, and how, and where results should lead.  It has been a long time since an open discussion was held. We have had years of advocacy for a particular method, not what is needed leading to a test designed to do that.
> 
	[RWL2:  Not sure of the intent here, but I am advocating against controlled cooking tests. We must use the water boiling test to be able to compare across stove types with and without stones and extra grates.
>  
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> Charcoal stoves have many advantages over wood stoves, including benefits of the char as an energy carrier. It is light, easily dried, and doesn’t rot.
> 
	[RWL3:   Yes, char is light, but per unit volume, most biomass is superior.  You can put more megajoules via wood into any of the 4 char-burners that Kevin has introduced than you can via char.  Volumes can be as important as weight.  The big advantage of a wood stove over a char-using stove is that the wood (or other combustibles) can be turned into biochar - see next.
> It is relatively easily ignited. The fact that people crate char wastefully and burn it inefficiently and incompletely is not an attribute of the fuel but of the managers.
> 
	[RWL4:  Agree in part on charcoal stove advantages.  I think a main one is that, once lit, they don’t need the attending that most wood stoves do. (TLUDS don’t need much tending).   I am torn on supporting Kevin in studying rocks and grates, because the production is so bad (Kevin’s#1 point above), and because the charcoal can be so important when treated as biochar (dozens of advantages - but mainly energy, climate and food).  But I agree with all of Kevin’s points above -  ethically we should all be trying to make the horrible practice of cooking with charcoal as less evil as we can. Cooking while making char is a good topic as well - but not in this thread.
> 
> While it is popular to say that charcoal makes “a lot of smoke” when it is made, it is only true when people do that, and not when they don’t. 
> 
	[RWL5:  Like Kevin - I worry a lot about how it is made - but production is not the theme of this thread
> Some of the best users of charcoal fuel are cooks in Cambodia. They are effective and frugal and have been doing it for thousands of years. Maybe we can learn something from them.
> 
	[RWL6:  Cambodia could be appropriate - especially if they can tell us anything about using rocks or extra grates. A cite on Cambodian charcoal being more efficient in usage?  No need for a cite in this thread on char production - even via TLUDs.

Ron
>  
> 
> Regards
> 
> Crispin
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> From: Ronal Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net <mailto:rongretlarson at comcast.net>> 
> Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2019 19:14
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org <mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>>; Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at outlook.com <mailto:crispinpigott at outlook.com>>; Kevin McLean > <info at sun24.solar>
> Cc: Christa Roth <stoves at foodandfuel.info <mailto:stoves at foodandfuel.info>>
> Subject: Improving cooking with charcoal
> 
>  
> 
> Crispin, Kevin,  List,  cc Christa
> 
>  
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>                 Note change in thread title.   The previous were under the name “no subject”- which wouldn’t help researchers not around for this thread (which is going well).        
> 
> 		
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                                 <snip a lot>
>  
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> From: info at sun24.solar <mailto:info at sun24.solar>
> Sent: October 27, 2019 9:01 AM
> 
> To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org <mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Reply to: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org <mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] (no subject)
> 
>  
> 
> Here is a report from Zambia <https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F167i50oweyfe23bRMnDSeJwlu0eM4IgTek6IO2C6JPes%2Fedit%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd9ec2f74d13049f204fa08d75d8ec8b4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637080740148782634&sdata=50qonsQ30NwtTdhm1UFaoLnAnRAE3hq0ZQWg%2FFARzJI%3D&reserved=0> indicating that the rock bed and second metal grate improve the efficiency of the Zambian mbaula (all-metal) charcoal jiko by 41%.  Cooking time is also greatly reduced.  While these testers have no training, their results are consistent.
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>  
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> This is such a simple modification that dissemination could be very rapid.  I hope some of you can try this. 
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>  
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> On Thu, Oct 10, 2019 at 1:37 PM K McLean <info at sun24.solar <mailto:info at sun24.solar>> wrote:
> 
> Listmates,
> 
>  
> 
> Has anyone tried this?
> 
>  
> 
> We seem to have significantly increased the efficiency of charcoal jikos by putting a bed of rocks on the jiko's grate and putting second metal grate on the rock bed.  The charcoal goes on the second metal grate.   2-3 cm rocks work.  It works in all metal jikos and clay jikos that we've tested. 
> 
>  
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> Our testing is early and unscientific, but consistent.  25-50% less fuel used.  Here are three reports.  The Sierra Leone report has good photos at the bottom.
> 
> Sierra Leone <https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F12MvBKjxq6PCGCcCHAjSYSeVXXvl7jWjD%2Fview%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd9ec2f74d13049f204fa08d75d8ec8b4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637080740148782634&sdata=QUKUqFK7%2BSRPyu3kcVSZDJR6QIz%2FNVrYFJNOruqRPl0%3D&reserved=0>
> Uganda <https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fopen%3Fid%3D1zQIY49E1vrfjYl7t5V_shvw70d67QirGWUrbW51tDxo&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd9ec2f74d13049f204fa08d75d8ec8b4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637080740148792643&sdata=gcU31g2xkNP6CvATAaOYiagHuLr2AotChRIUHTkSBTQ%3D&reserved=0>
> Kenya (very few rocks) <https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fopen%3Fid%3D1MPwHCwKEVqJvuybKB5Yj39nr8fbcopBP&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd9ec2f74d13049f204fa08d75d8ec8b4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637080740148802651&sdata=4REjkNM%2BzaufoOuOIuT%2BDcnQE%2BH7FYfljlHg6K3dRlY%3D&reserved=0>
> (The report authors are untrained and not native English speakers.  Especially the Kenya report contains many errors. Please focus on the consistent final conclusion that a rock bed and second metal grate significantly reduce firewood usage.)
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> This may be a very low cost, very easy way to greatly improved the efficiency of charcoal jikos.  I'd like to hear if there is already a body of work on this.  Here is my rough drawing:
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> <20191010_133359.jpg>
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> Thank you,
> 
> Kevin
> 
>  
> 
> Kevin McLean, President
> 
> Sun24
> 
> https://sun24.solar <https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsun24.solar&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd9ec2f74d13049f204fa08d75d8ec8b4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637080740148802651&sdata=M6yOWdYV2B5YCSb%2BybnechSugQGGY5HLCoES1dZyiBM%3D&reserved=0>  Sun24 Cookstoves Overview <https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1ZryS7gQ1q3zKLZPM2KcXdtIHbOYQp4PbloPqMvrlZ5Y%2Fedit%3Fusp%3Dsharing&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cd9ec2f74d13049f204fa08d75d8ec8b4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637080740148812660&sdata=6ZBNIMFoA9ti4uGqy9RZTpJGCNUzcH18%2BgZ%2Bx93rgcE%3D&reserved=0>
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