Many years ago, Kirk Smith hired Aprovecho to help Rob Bailis from U. C. Berkeley update and add emissions to the Water Boiling Test in the 1985 International Testing Standards. The Water Boiling Test (WBT) measured in the lab how much wood was used at full power and when simmering water. The writers of the […]
ASAT, the for-profit arm of Aprovecho, has been awarded a prestigious Tibbetts Award by the US Small Business Administration. The Tibbets Award is given for demonstrating significant economic and social impact from the R&D funding provided by SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grants. ASAT received EPA SBIR grants that enabled the research and development of: […]
Watch what happens with PM2.5, CO2, Oxygen and more during a wood burning stove test in this real-time video from Apro’s Laboratory Emissions Monitoring System. The LEMS provides a display of what’s being recorded by the various sensors in the stove being tested, and in the emissions hood. In this video, Dean Still gives an overview […]
Having unbiased villagers or Dr. Jim Jetter test Aprovecho’s Lorena stove might have helped to reduce our embarrassment when again and again the open fire was proven to be much more fuel efficient! Inventor’s pride is a well-known human frailty. Creating a truth-telling team including all the folks concerned with a stove project helps to […]
In this video, Dean Still explains why a pot skirt – a sheet of metal wrapped around the cooking pot – is a simple yet important way to improve the fuel efficiency of a rocket stove. He also explains how to calculate the appropriate distance between the skirt and the pot. Stay tuned to the […]
The Jet-Flame was developed from combustion concepts used in fluidized beds and TLUDs. Fluidized Bed “In its most basic form, fuel particles are suspended in a hot, bubbling fluidity bed of ash and other particulate materials (sand, limestone etc.) through which (under air) jets of air are blown to provide the oxygen required for combustion […]
It’s fascinating to read the ISO 19867 Standards for cookstoves and I agree with a lot of it. Many of us in the ‘stove world’ were involved for years in creating those documents. One of the big improvements is testing stoves at high, medium, and low power while reporting the results with the firepower. We forgot […]
In the lab, we are used to thinking of the ISO Tiers as static, based on how much pollution enters a 30 cubic foot kitchen during four hours of cooking with 15 air exchanges per hour. However, in 2018 ISO published 19867-3 that further explains how, for example, increasing the air exchange rate (ACH) changes […]
Why is a heavy stove an inefficient stove? A tall combustion chamber makes a lot of draft to keep a fire roaring, how can that be a bad thing? What is TARP-V and how will it improve your stove? Dean Still has the answers for you in the latest Rocket Stove 2020 Video. Here is […]
In 1976, Aprovecho was started in Guatemala after a terrible earthquake. The founders invented a stove called the Lorena as part of trying to help folks with their farms and forests. In 1981, Aprovecho came back to Oregon and bought 40 acres to learn how to maintain a forest, grow food, and make stoves. The […]