The Fire Fly

The FireFly: A TLUD Lantern Stove and the Well-Tuned Rocket Stove

Studying the TLUD (Top Lit Up Draft) stove unified our thinking about how clean combustion can be described. Both the Rocket and TLUD can be cleaned up by following the same design principles:
Only make the amount of gaseous fuel (by heating wood) that will all flow into the flame above the fuel. (Lean mixtures usually burn cleaner than rich mixtures).
The gaseous fuel must be supplied with enough air to fully combust.
The flame, air, gases, and smoke must be completely mixed.
The very well mixed gaseous fuel must reside in the flame for a long enough period of time to completely combust.
The FireFly Lantern/Stove illustrates how these principles can be applied. Very little primary air enters the fuel from below limiting the rate of gaseous fuel production. The forceful secondary air jets supply enough air and mixing to prepare for successful combustion in the flame. When the well mixed gases remain for a long enough time in the vertical column of flame almost complete combustion occurs.

The Rocket stove functions in the same way. Burning only the tips of the sticks meters the amount of made gaseous fuel. Burning only the ends of the sticks creates the amount of gas that will all flow up into the flame above the fuel. When the gases are well mixed (usually with forced air) and reside in the flame long enough very clean combustion results.

The FireFly will be available for purchase very soon through StoveTecStore.net, visit to learn more and see video footage of the FireFly in action!

Summer Stove Camp 2015

Summer Stove Camp 2015 July 27th-30th at Aprovecho Research Center

Aprovecho’s Summer Stove Camp is back! This is an opportunity to conduct lots of emissions testing of stoves “under the hood” in the lab and in a Test Kitchen.

Stove Camp is open to everyone, and is regularly attended by – designers, producers, program implementers/administrators, folks interested in environmental issues, women’s advocates, student interns, and some amazing inventors. We all share the goal of serving humanity – particularly in the developing world – by finding viable solutions.

Stove Camp encourages participants, and shows them how, to solve stove problems. One year NASA participated and we combined emissions equipment to do experiments on Black Carbon. Working with GIZ the participants at Stove Camp 2012 revisited and did further exploration and analysis of charcoal stoves. Participants have open access to the emissions hoods and sometimes spend the whole week tuning their stove.

People have the option of camping out by the river at our new beautiful campus at Blue Mountain, or choosing one of several affordable accommodations, in the small Oregon town of Cottage Grove.

Stove Camp is unusual because there are unique kinds of learning opportunities all around you.
We expect a large turnout this year, so please reserve a spot soon!

To make a reservation or learn more, please contact Jill Allen via email jill@aprovecho.org