<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:v =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml"><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19403">
<STYLE>@font-face {
font-family: Calibri;
}
@font-face {
font-family: Tahoma;
}
@page WordSection1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; }
P.MsoNormal {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; FONT-SIZE: 12pt
}
LI.MsoNormal {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; FONT-SIZE: 12pt
}
DIV.MsoNormal {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; FONT-SIZE: 12pt
}
A:link {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlink {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
A:visited {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
P.MsoAcetate {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Balloon Text Char"
}
LI.MsoAcetate {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Balloon Text Char"
}
DIV.MsoAcetate {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Balloon Text Char"
}
SPAN.BalloonTextChar {
FONT-FAMILY: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Balloon Text"; mso-style-name: "Balloon Text Char"
}
SPAN.hoenzb {
mso-style-name: hoenzb
}
SPAN.EmailStyle20 {
FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri","sans-serif"; COLOR: black; mso-style-type: personal-reply
}
.MsoChpDefault {
FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-style-type: export-only
}
DIV.WordSection1 {
page: WordSection1
}
</STYLE>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></HEAD>
<BODY lang=EN-US link=blue bgColor=#ffffff vLink=purple>
<DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri>Dale
and Stovers,</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri>How about wood cut to a length, that
works for a typical household stove, maybe 3 to 6” long, it could be a large
diameter or a small diameter, and let the end user split the wood to the right
size for their stove, with a hatchet.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri>Wood dries quicker when cut to a
shorter length and it is</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT
face=Calibri> easy to split, easy to handle, and easy to weigh, and
the wood is more compact to ship, also the wood dries
quicker.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri>I have been burning red oak, pallet
oak, spruce 2x4 and limbs cut to about 6” long, and split to size with a
hatchet. I used a chain saw for the disk and a hand saw to cut the limb and 2x4.
If the wood is longer than you need, and you do not have a chain saw,
split the wood first and then use a hand saw to cut it to length. I
usually cut a typical "fire wood" length in 3 pieces.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri><o:p><IMG border=0 hspace=0 alt=""
align=baseline
src="cid:7E22103AC93446D0AB6EBA57A97456C8@main"></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri><o:p>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri>Wood, Short Lengths, Split to
Size.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt">Lanny</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNoSpacing><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt"><FONT face=Calibri><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"></FONT><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN> </P></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dandreatta@sealimited.com
href="mailto:dandreatta@sealimited.com">Andreatta, Dale A.</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org
href="mailto:stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org">Discussion of biomass cooking
stoves</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, April 08, 2013 5:09
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Stoves] Alternative to
charcoal</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=WordSection1>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">At
the recent ETHOS conference Paul Means and Chris Lanning gave a very
thought-provoking talk about an alternative to charcoal. The basic idea
was to use a gasifying stove with prepared wood fuel. The prepared wood
fuel would be bought by the user instead of charcoal, and the supply chain
would be similar to charcoal. The big advantage is that the very
inefficient step of charcoal production is eliminated. The stove would
hopefully be easy to use and would smoke very little, so as to retain the
benefits of a charcoal stove. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Their
proposed fuel was crumbled wood, which would work well, but seemed to me to
require a lot of big machinery and capital. How could one go from a tree
to a fuel that would burn well in a gasifier with as little work as possible,
and without too much costly equipment? The fuel should be as low
or lower in cost than charcoal per unit of food cooked, and give a better
ratio of food cooked per unit of tree. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">I
did some preliminary experiments. With 779 g of natural wood from the
trees in my yard, I used a Paul Anderson Champion gasifier and boiled 5 liters
in 21.4 minutes (corrected). After an easy light the stove burned
steadily with no attention, other than turning down the primary air when
boiling started. About 10 minutes after boiling the pyrolysis ended and
I transferred 123 grams of char sticks, glowing only weakly, into a charcoal
stove, and continued simmering until nearly 2 hours after the start of
boiling. I had good turndown on the charcoal stove and a lid on the
pot. There was a little smoke during the pyrolysis phase, but not too
much. This seems like excellent stove performance.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Had
I used a very good charcoal stove to perform a similar task, it might have
taken 240 g of charcoal. This would take about 1800 g of wood if the
charcoal were made efficiently, or 3000 g if it were made normally.
(Reference Means and Lanning on the efficiency of charcoal
production.)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The
wood I started with was about 1 inch diameter (2.5 cm) by 6 inches (15 cm)
long, cut from my trees and dried outdoors but under cover for some
months. I didn’t measure the moisture content, but a previous
oven-drying test with similar wood showed about 12-14% moisture. A
previous test with larger diameter wood didn’t go well, so I think this is
about the maximum possible diameter. I don’t know how long it took to
get to this moisture content, not months I’m sure, but at least some number of
days. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The
production method for this alternative to charcoal would be to use a chain saw
to cut wood into convenient lengths while in the forest, then take it to a
central place. Here, use electric saws and/or hydraulic splitters
to cut the wood to the appropriate size. Give the wood a modest amount
of drying in the sun, or in some simple oven. The wood might have to
finish drying at the place of use. I expect that split wood would dry
faster than cut sticks, since the moisture doesn’t have to pass through the
bark. Alternatively, use a chain saw and engine powered splitter to cut
the wood to size in the forest, then transport to a central place for
drying. When fairly dry, transport the wood to the users as with
charcoal. During transport, the energy per unit weight would be lower
than charcoal, but the energy per unit volume would be similar. The user
might be given the option of buying shorter sticks for cooking smaller meals,
or longer sticks for larger meals. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">In
comparing the economics of this method to charcoal, I would think of the cost
of the fuel as coming from 5 elements; the cost of the trees, the cost of the
processing equipment, the cost of the labor, the cost of the transportation
and distribution, and the cost of the stove. If the trees are free, then
the fact that you don’t cut as many trees doesn’t help much. If the
trees must be paid for, then this method looks more attractive. The
processing equipment for charcoal is virtually free, but hopefully this method
doesn’t take too much equipment. The labor for this method might be
similar to charcoal, but it might be less because you are cutting and
processing a lot fewer trees to serve the same number of customers.
Transportation would be more expensive, since you are shipping more mass,
though not a lot more volume. This method would require a gasifier or
T-Char stove, which would be an expense, though hopefully not a lot compared
to the annual cost of fuel. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Thus,
if the trees must be paid for, this method might be attractive to the consumer
of the fuel, the producer of the fuel, and to the forest. If the trees
are not paid for, this method looks less attractive, though the forest would
still benefit and some outside subsidy might be
available.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Dale
Andreatta, Ph.D., P.E. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>Stoves mailing
list<BR><BR>to Send a Message to the list, use the email
address<BR>stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org<BR><BR>to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change
your List Settings use the web
page<BR>http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org<BR><BR>for
more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web
site:<BR>http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>