“ARC is trying to figure out how to burn wood without making smoke.” That’s how we sometimes explain our work to visitors. Folks often say, “That’s not possible!” “How could you do that?” We respond: “It doesn’t seem to be too hard.” “Force the right amount of smoke into the fire for long enough, making […]
A static mixer designed by Kirk Harris Perhaps, Time, Temperature, Turbulence is too easy to remember? “TTT” is elegant shorthand for how to achieve clean combustion and perhaps other factors are too obvious to mention? At the same time, leaving out other clean burning factors confuses me. Metering the right amount of woodgas into the […]
ARC is working on three types of Zero Green Premium biomass heating stoves designed to protect health and climate. “Zero Green Premium” means that the new product costs the same as the dirty one it replaces. As a rough estimate, ARC uses 0.5 grams per hour of PM2.5 at <5% Black Carbon ratio to define […]
Small sticks make higher temperature gases, better for heat transfer efficiency, but more smoke Monitoring many fires seems to show that along with density, moisture, etc., the diameter of sticks has a large effect on both heat transfer and combustion efficiency. In a Rocket stove without a closing door, there is obviously a lot of […]
Sunken pot, 50% thermal efficiency cook stove with chimney When (oh, when!) will PM2.5 be included in carbon offset methodologies? Who can blame stove manufacturers for selling high thermal efficiency/low combustion efficiency stoves when protecting health is not financially rewarded? Factories can only sell what the market demands even when they manufacture better stoves. Manufacturers, […]
Heat Transfer Efficiency! Wow, heat transfer efficiency is easy to understand! Read on… Raising the Temperature of gases flowing next to the heat exchanger (the pot in a cook stove) is probably the most effective technique in a Rocket stove to increase heat transfer efficiency (use less wood for cooking). Doubling the Temperature of gases […]
Here is a video I made last week, introducing some of the the new things I saw on my visit to Shengzhou Stove Manufacturer (SSM). I keep on saying in the video (Sorry!) how much I admire Mr. and Mrs. Shen. Mr. Shen is a great engineer who has built the new buildings, installed the […]
I just returned to the Oregon lab from a two-week visit to Shengzhou Stove Manufacturer. The next few newsletters will be about SSM and progress made. There’s a lot to talk about! SSM has sold over 5 million stoves and the factory is a wonderful place to visit. SSM started testing stoves for durability twenty-four […]
Using the ISO testing protocols, Champion (2021)* reported energy emission factors (g/MJ) from the Three Stone Fire, a forced draft Pellet Stove, a forced draft Wood Fan stove, a natural draft Rocket stove and a charcoal stove. ARC added results from a Jet-Flame stove. Using the estimates of global warming potential from the Gold Standard […]
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 […]