Appreciating Local Expertise

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Cooking over an open fire in Ghana. (Photo: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves)

Cooks are experts!

Community organizers often say that to be successful the solution has to come from the folks with the problem. Another important factor is to appreciate the culture and long evolved expertise in their technical and social solutions. The women at Rancho San Nicolas, where I lived for eight years, were incredibly skillful at cooking on an open fire and were understandably proud of their abilities when cooking perfect tortillas, fish, beans, soup, etc. At a fish camp, guys who were not cooking every day, had a lot of trouble making anything close to a succulent home cooked meal.

Along with the hundreds of technical skills that made ranching fun, culture made life easier and more beautiful. Ranch culture was at least half of competency and expertise. Laughing at life’s problems made overcoming them much more likely. Religion, nature, the beauty of living outdoors and liking the slow pace were strengths in my friends that I grew to envy and attempted to emulate.

Bringing innovations started with lots of failure. The first Rocket stoves became flowerpots. The first solar cookers became toilet seats and windows. Eventually, ARC appropriate technologists made prototypes that were simply put on public display. Of our many attempts to introduce ‘helpful’ technology, cement rat proof boxes were the biggest success.

We learned a lot more than we taught, starting with listening to our expert hosts. The shorter and higher firepower Rocket stove that has gone viral was created by women in 18 villages in Southern India. Dr. Winiarski had the idea and the cooks made it practical.

Deforestation, Health, Climate

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Catching up to changing stove expectations reminds me of human maturation. Babies may only need to laugh to keep parents happy, but as kids grow up the stages of development result in further complications. Happily, meeting the expanding goals of protecting deforestation, health and climate can make stoves increase their abilities without changing an essential character that continues to please the cook.

Designed to protect forests, the initial stove featured increased thermal efficiency.

The health-protecting stove added burning up carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (smoke, especially PM2.5).

Protecting climate matures the same stove as harmful climate forcers are combusted as well (NOx, Black Carbon, VOCs, Methane, etc.). Importantly, attempting to burn 100% renewable biomass can zero out the warming effect of Carbon dioxide (CO2).

In simple terms, a stove loved by cooks can be changed to cook using as little wood as possible, then CO and PM2.5 are combusted and then the previously uncounted gasses and black component in smoke are burned up, too.  The biomass fuel should be as renewable as possible to decrease adding CO2 to climate.

The same stove does better and better making stakeholders proud.

Fir trees and blue sky

Black and White Smoke

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Fir trees and blue sky

Biomass: Captured sunlight

Wood burning cookstoves make smoke and many different gases that change climate. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed when the plant grows and the same amount of carbon dioxide can be released when that biomass is burned. So emissions of CO2 can be zero with no effect on global warming (carbon neutral) if the burned biomass is used at the same rate as it grows.

But other emissions from combustion are also bad for climate change. Generally, wood burning cookstoves do not make a lot of methane and carbon monoxide so these gases do not add a lot to their effect on climate change. 

On the other hand, biomass cookstoves without engineered forced draft can make a lot Black Carbon (the soot in smoke) and BC is very bad for climate change. For this reason, when protecting climate, cookstoves should make as little black smoke as possible. 

White smoke can have a cooling effect on climate. ARC has been learning how to make combustion chambers that emit as little smoke as possible and make 95% white smoke and 5% black smoke. We are working with manufacturers to make stoves with health/climate combustion chambers.

Short-lived Climate Forcers and Climate Change

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It is not difficult to estimate the emissions of Black Carbon from cook stoves.

The emissions that change climate include various gases and the colors of smoke. If the wood used for cooking is 100% renewably harvested, the emissions of CO2 can be carbon neutral. Why? CO2 is absorbed when the plant grows and the same amount of CO2 can be released when biomass is burned. 

100% renewability can help CO2 to become climate neutral. However, the fraction of non-renewability (fNRB) does not change the amounts of other climate forcing emissions. Smoke is smoke. Etc.

What are the most powerful cook stove emissions affecting climate?

In general, adding methane and carbon monoxide to Carbon dioxide (CO2) adds a bit to the total warming influences (CO2e). 

However, adding short-lived climate forcers such as NOx, SOx and Black Carbon to the above has been estimated to more than double the warming potential. 

For this reason, it seems to be important to add the short-lived climate forcers when calculating how to address climate change with cook stoves. 

A chef cooks at a stove with a flaming wok

Turn Down Ratio: Cooking and Heating Stoves

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The successful stove delivers the needed amount of heat to perform a task. In Haiti, our little charcoal stove could not bring the big pots of rice and beans to boil although the thermal efficiency at low power (simmering) was above 40%.

In the same way, a tight, well-insulated house requires a low amount of heat to stay warm. A “leaky” house needs higher firepowers to replace the constant flow of hot air lost through cracks under doors, etc.

Generally, a good stove has a minimum three to one turn down ratio. Heating stove experts have suggested a high power of 5 pounds burned per hour and a low power of 1.5 pounds. If a heating stove cannot turn down sufficiently, the tight, well-insulated house gets too warm. On the other hand, a “leaky’ house needs a big fire.  To save fuel, a tight house is more important than a new stove.

To boil 5 liters of water in less than 25 minutes in an uncovered pot, low mass cook stoves with tight pot skirts typically need a high power between 3kW and 2.5kW. However, firepower is often a lot higher when cooks are trying to get food on the table. In our experience, many cooks prefer ~ 5kW. 

Experiments at ARC have shown that with a low mass stove, lid, tight skirt on a 5 liter pot, it takes only ~0.4 kW to maintain a 97°C simmering temperature. But, cooking requirements vary a lot from country to country. Chinese cookstoves tend to use 10-15kW and may not need low power. 

Village cooks in Southern India cooked with many small pots and often did not bring the water to a full boil. For India, Dr. K. K. Prasad proposed, “…an ideal burner design with the power output ranging from 2.64 kW to 0.44 kW… (Prasad and Sangen, 1983, pp. 108-109). Dr. Baldwin adds, “One of the most important factors determining field performance of a stove is the firepower it is run at during the simmering phase. Because simmering times tend to be long, quite modest increases in firepower above the minimum needed can greatly increase fuel consumption.” (Baldwin, 1987)

With careful operation, the heat exchanger efficiency of houses and pots combined with delivering the appropriate firepower largely determines the fuel used per task. 

thermal image of house juxtaposed with daylight image of same house

COP 28: Near-zero emissions in global building sectors

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thermal image of a house juxtaposed with daylight image of same house
Heat can constantly leak out of older homes. Photo: Gina Sanders

Aprovecho is investigating how to design and manufacture biomass-heating stoves that protect health and climate when burning renewably harvested biomass. Of course, staying warm depends on many factors including how much energy is being leaked from the building.

Net-zero buildings are usually tight and well insulated. A net-zero home can have a heating load of 10,000 to 15,000 Btuh (or ~3 to 4 kW) in a cold, northern climate. At COP 28, a minority of nations agreed to move towards net zero homes to reduce climate change by heating the better buildings with renewables. Green Building Advisor: 28 Countries Sign Buildings Breakthrough Agreement at COP28

Since the 1970’s, architects and engineers have learned how to dramatically reduce energy losses in buildings. Many net-zero homes take advantage of solar power to assist heating and create electricity. Solar gain helps a tight, well-insulated home to stay warm.

The United Nations found that buildings and construction account for 39% of total carbon emissions annually. Net Zero Homes: Your Guide to the Greenest Housing Option  If a new generation of very clean burning biomass heating stoves can protect health and climate, might they assist COP* countries to move towards near-zero emissions in global building sectors? *COP is the decision-making body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

From: EPA’s Lab Test Results for Household Cookstoves, Jim Jetter, 2012 

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Since 2012, optimized biomass cook stoves have been tested at ~50% thermal efficiency

The temperature of the hot gases flowing past the surface of the pot is increased by

  1. Creating as much flame (1,100C) as possible in a low mass, insulated combustion chamber.
  2. Decreasing the distance between the fire and the pot without making excess smoke.
  3. Not allowing external air to cool the combustion gasses.

In convective heat transfer, the primary resistance is the surface boundary layer of still air immediately adjacent to a wall. 

Increasing Temperatures, increasing exposed Area, increasing Radiation, increasing Velocity in a 6mm to 7mm channel gap (10cm or higher) pot skirt has been shown (up to 5kW firepower) in a 24cm or larger diameter pot to result in ~50% thermal efficiency. Reducing losses from the exterior of the pot skirt with refractory ceramic fiber insulation also increases thermal efficiency. 

60% thermal efficiency has been demonstrated in the lab.

Helpful links:

Cleaner Burning Biomass Stoves: In Homes!

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The British Petroleum clean burning Oorja FD-TLUD stove from India

If protecting health and climate are important in stove projects, why not monetize the reductions of health/climate pollutants in carbon-offset projects?

Only the reduction in fuel use earns carbon income now!

With equal heat transfer efficiency, dirty burning stoves earn as much as clean burning stoves.

Dirty burning stoves are less expensive. “Market demand” reinforces the use of biomass stoves with low combustion efficiency.

Why not add income from reductions in CO, PM2.5 and Black Carbon, etc. to carbon projects to get cleaner burning stoves into use?

The approved 2017 Gold Standard Methodology already exists to do this! See: www.goldstandard.org/articles/black-carbon-and-other-short-lived-climate-pollutants

Moving Forward: Thanks to Jim Jetter’s EPA Lab!

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Champion (2021) average energy emission factors (g/MJ) from ISO high, medium, and low tests. 

Champion, Wyatt M., et al. “Cookstove Emissions and Performance Evaluation Using a New ISO Protocol and Comparison of Results with Previous Test Protocols.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2021, 55, (22), 15333-15342.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c03390

Lab testing can quickly compare emissions from stoves. The EPA and ARC labs now measure the climate emission factors, not just PM2.5 and CO. It has been proven that only field tests show real world performance. Together, lab and field tests help to move stoves forward as we get closer to market driven stoves that please cooks, successfully cook food, use a lot less fuel, and protect health/climate.

The above chart contains a lot of information. Some takeaways are:

  1. Wow! The Three Stone Fire (TSF) was pretty bad! 943g/MJ for PM2.5, 15.5 g/MJ for CO.
  2. Charcoal made ~90% less PM2.5.
  3. The Carbon Monoxide (CO) from charcoal was only a bit higher than the Three Stone Fire (19.2g/MJ).
  4. LPG did so well! (Too bad that we are entering the end of the fossil fuel era).
  5. The forced draft pellet stove looked great, as well. (PM2.5: 30g/MJ, 2.2g/MJ CO)
  6. Black Carbon (EC) is much worse than CO2 for climate change. Many of the stoves, except the Rocket stove, successfully reduced Black Carbon. 
  7.  In this recent lab test, as in the previous MacCarthy study (2008), the Rocket stove emitted a lot of Black Carbon.  www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0973082608604299
  8. R&D has shown that the Rocket stove requires successful forced draft mixing at high temperatures to decrease emissions of Black Carbon and potentially address climate. 

When the emissions factors are summed and converted to global warming potential the forced draft stoves have the potential to generate large amounts of carbon offsets. 

Happy Holidays, 2023!

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That the days are shorter is easy to attest to here at Blue Mountain. Our campus is wedged between parallel rows of 100-foot tall Fir trees. Yesterday, the rare sun fell down below the celestial horizon at 2PM.  We envy the valley farmers whose day lasts until around five. On the other hand, being surrounded by the forest up here makes the air sweet and clean. But only when the wood burning heating and cooking stoves that we are developing and testing are protecting health and climate.

It can be so terrible when traditional stoves are belching smoke! I have had pneumonia three times and get nervous when my throat gets sore. Clean burning makes me a lot happier. 

HEALTH: Can biomass be burned cleanly enough to protect air quality when warming houses and cooking food? 

CLIMATE: Can the Global Warming Potential of burned biomass meet the Paris Agreements and join solar, hydro and wind as a renewable energy source? 

Sure, we do both every day.  

Celebrating life and scientific endeavor in the forest becomes pleasant and comforting when we are toasty warm, and the smoke disappears. 

Feels downright civilized.