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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Stovers,<br>
<br>
Excellent discussion. Jon's message below puts it into
perspective. I oversimplify what Crispin has said in the past:
There are no bad fuels, just bad stoves. (Exaggeration has its
impact!! Basically, I agree with Crispin.)<br>
<br>
And Paal Wendelbo always says: Start with the fuel. And Jon
points out the abundant Jatropha seeds. I add that "abundance"
in nature is not the same as abundant in supply, meaning that it
fuel needs to be collected. So we have the chicken and egg
problem of which comes first. Leaving that aside, please note.<br>
<br>
1. Jatropha and other oil-seeds not only yield pyrolytic gases
and char and heat, they also yield great amounts of vaporized oils
that are combustible. That difference is vastly important for the
TLUD gasifier (all micro-gasifiers) operations. That means, MUCH
MORE SECONDARY AIR is needed. It is not sufficient to simply turn
down the primary air. And on this basis, I believe that ONLY
gasifier stoves are viable candidates to have sufficiently clean
combustion for Jatropha-seed fuel.<br>
<br>
2. We cannot ignore the need for some chemical analysis of the
emissions from the stoves AFTER the good combustion of the gases.
Can any bad stuff survive the high heat of the combustion stage in
a gasifier stove? <br>
<br>
3. Two known and proven and accomplished ways of successfully
using Jatropha (oil-seed) seed fuel in a TLUD stove. Natural
draft (TLUD-ND) is accomplished by the Jiko Safi by Jet City
Stoveworks. It has a central pipe for additional secondary air.
More holes for secondary air to mix into (with less distance to
move horiziontally) the volume of fuel rich gases. Someone
suggested removing that central pipe. That does not work. That
was tried before the success came with the central pipe. Step
back for actual success, repeat what was not successful earlier,
and make no progress. Anyone is welcome to try it again. <br>
<br>
4. TLUD-FA (forced air or fan-asssisted) with Jatropha seed fuel
has also been successful. It was done by Nathan Puffer and seen
as Gasifier/CHAB stove camp in 2010 at NESFI in MA. Done. It can
be improved. But there are no funds to undertake its
refinement. And then it has the higher price factor that puts
these stoves out of purchasing reach of those who need them. AND
you have to get the fuel supply chain functioning. Nathan (of New
Hampshire) is active for a couple of decades in Kenya, and his
latest work is with the natural draft TChar TLUD-ND in Kenya.
Financial assistance would be appreciated and appropriate. (I
will be mentioning more about his TChar work in my presentation at
ETHOS next week. I might entitle my presentation: "Unsung Heros
of TLUD Stoves", but I cannot find many who have been "Sung").<br>
<br>
Jonathan concluded:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">The point of importuning my stove
list colleagues on a fine Sunday morning is to interest other
stove makers to look at Jatropha and other energy-rich seeds as
a category of fuel worth consideration for new stove designs.
We are modestly pleased with the performance of the jiko safi,
but we also know that some of you with far deeper understanding
of gasification and far more experience in stove design could
produce a much better model. Anyone want to take up this
challenge?</blockquote>
<br>
Yes, but there needs to be some financial support. Personally, I
am pressed too thinly for money and time to undertake anything
without serious co-workers/partners/associates/backers. Solutions
that are needed do not grow on trees (although the fuels do). So
far I have not seen any GACC funding that can be directed to the
R&D efforts for stoves such as Jatropha-seed TLUDs. That is
NOT the mission of the GACC. Other sources, maybe exist. On the
other hand, GACC support for an EXISTING product (the Jiko Safi)
could stimulate sufficient business that the owners can also do
some refinements that would soon be evident in the second wave of
production. If we are going to get the NEEDED stoves, we must
acknowledge that there will be improvements on the existing
stoves. If that means R&D, then that must happen. But we
just need to have it done by companies that are sufficiently
funded to be successful enough to study, learn, and improve their
stoves. <br>
<br>
Summary: This topic keeps coming up, and it is time to do
something about it.<br>
1. Support for Jiko Safi stove (Jet City Stoveworks -- the Otto
brothers plus)(Tanzania base)<br>
2. I will assist, and can bring Awamu Biomass Energy Ltd (Uganda)
into participation<br>
3. Nathan Puffer (focus on Kenya efforts)<br>
4. Others (self-nominate here)<br>
5. Some sources of funding (we do not know who you are, so please
speak up)<br>
6. Others (who will gladly join when some funding is available.)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Paul S. Anderson, PhD aka "Dr TLUD"
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:psanders@ilstu.edu">psanders@ilstu.edu</a> Skype: paultlud Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.drtlud.com">www.drtlud.com</a></pre>
On 1/20/2013 8:23 AM, Jonathan Otto wrote:<br>
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Hey Richard,<br>
<br>
Not sure why you feel my briquetting education has been
neglected, since that kind of fuel is not mentioned in any of my
postings; but I certainly subscribe to Dean's comment: we all
have a lot to learn about such alternative fuels. I would add:
and the stoves that burn them in a truly clean way. Which
brings up the question: if a briquette or pellet is burned in an
open charcoal brazier, do we have a clean energy source? To put
in another way, there are no 'clean' or 'dirty' fuels; it's
combination of fuel and stove that must be evaluated together
for emissions and other performance parameters. <br>
<br>
My densified fuels question to Otto the Senior or anyone else
who can enlighten me concerning the logic of pelletizing
Jatropha presscake. If farmers grow their
own energy-dense, uniform-sized fuel, i.e., whole Jatropha seed,
why complicate matters by processing that ready-to-use fuel into
another fuel? No matter how efficient the pelletizing process,
it must require time and energy. Why not burn these seeds
directly in a micro gasifier stove, such as our jiko safi? <br>
<br>
Let me try to head off some likely comments. I know that there
are companies in many African and Asian countries engaged in
commercial scale production of Jatropha (and other biofuel
crops) for export of biodeisel. Land grabbing and other
nefarious activities of some of these players are obscene, as
once again the global north exploits tropical countries for
cheap/free land and cheap labor to meet its own needs. <br>
<br>
Yes, those Jatropha oil export ventures produce presscake as a
by-product which they pelletize and market for fuel. And yes,
some smaller operations in a few countries like Uganda, are
trying to make a go of producing Jatropha-based biofuels for
local and regional energy markets. But for all the publicity,
most of it appropriately negative, in the 'food vs. fuel'
analysis, there's a lot more to Jatropha than current attempts
to put the oil in European cars and jet engines.<br>
<br>
Far apart from all these recent commercial Jatropha ventures,
many of which are unprofitable for reasons we can discuss
another time if anyone's interested, are many millions of
farmers in over 110 countries who use Jatropha as a living hedge
and for medicianl uses. Seems it's grown in every frost-free
area of the world. I've found it from Cuba -- it's native to the
neo-tropics -- to Mali, which has thousands of kilometers of
hedges, to Bhutan where villagers were obliged to pay a Jatropha
tax to monks for lighting in floating wick lamps. <br>
<br>
My guess is that over 99% of all Jatropha seed fall to the
ground and rot, unused. (One study in a district of Tanzania
where Jatropha seed is a traded commodity found that only 6% of
seed is harvested.) As we all search for renewable, sustainably
harvested biomass to fuel our favorite stoves, can we afford to
overlook seeds of this ubiquitous, multi-use species? <br>
<br>
The point of importuning my stove list colleagues on a fine
Sunday morning is to interest other stove makers to look at
Jatropha and other energy-rich seeds as a category of fuel worth
consideration for new stove designs. We are modestly pleased
with the performance of the jiko safi, but we also know that
some of you with far deeper understanding of gasification and
far more experience in stove design could produce a much better
model. Anyone want to take up this challenge?<br>
<br>
Over to you,<br>
<br>
Jonathan<br>
<br>
<br>
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