Yesterday morning I was on an ETHOS panel discussing stoves, health and climate change. I loved the discussion and was filled with hope that facing the end of the fossil fuel era might catalyze better use of resources. Living sustainably has been a dream of mine since I was 15 years old in 1967. Like […]
High temperatures in the combustion chamber seem to have both positive and negative effects on emission rates of biomass. Higher temperatures lower the residence time needed for more complete combustion. At the same time, especially with dry wood, the rate of reactions (how much wood gas is being made per unit of time) is increased. […]
ISO 19867-1:2018 is a set of laboratory test protocols for evaluating cookstove performance, published by the International Organization for Standardization. Their Voluntary Performance Targets are a set of baseline criteria defined as tiers – Tier 0 is worst, Tier 5 is best. These ISO Targets measure Thermal Efficiency, Exposure (PM2.5 and CO), Safety, and Durability. […]
One of my favorite reference books is “The Energy Primer” published in 1974. It has comprehensive review articles on solar, wind, water, and biomass energy. The following chart comes from a great article on biomass written by Richard Merrill. When I taught semester courses to college students at ARC, I tried to give students useful […]
A natural draft TLUD can be as clean burning as a forced draft TLUD burning wood pellets. On the other hand, a natural draft Rocket stove needs a fan to be clean burning. Dr. Tom Reed’s forced draft (FD) Woodgas stove achieved an emissions rate of 2mg/min of PM2.5 with pellet fuel (ARC, 2015). The […]
Before I met Dr. Larry Winiarski I was a boat builder, but I had already realized that my love for making boats was mostly supported by rich people. And when my friends and I built a 36’ ocean going sailboat it was great but after several years of exploring it started to be a bit […]
In our Nov. 24 newsletter, we shared a basic description of how wood burns from Samuel Baldwin’s book “Biomass Stoves: Engineering Design, Development, and Dissemination” (1987). Here are more details about the process from the same book: “The temperature of the hot gas above the wood is typically around 1100ºC and is limited by radiant […]
Aprovecho Research Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Nordica MacCarty has accepted the role of Executive Director. Dr. MacCarty takes over the position from Dean Still, who continues on as Research Director. Dr. MacCarty is also an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University where she will continue teaching and directing the […]
Sometimes it’s good to step back and review the very basis of stove work – fire. Samuel Baldwin gives a good description of how wood burns in his book “Biomass Stoves: Engineering Design, Development, and Dissemination” (1987). “The combustion of wood and other raw biomass is very complicated but can be broken down crudely into […]
What do I like most about Aprovecho Research Center? We have created a “culture of daily experimentation.” Scheduling two to three experiments every morning means that we can try less-likely-to-succeed variations. That’s great because experiments that don’t succeed in improving a stove often reveal interesting and possibly unexpected results. And that can lead to new […]