Entries by Kim Still

Secondary Air Injection

S Dr. Reed’s Alpha Limited stoves Lefebvre, Vanormelingen, and Udesen examined secondary air jets air in cylindrical TLUD combustion chambers and described the most successful patterns and penetration depths. They reported that air jet penetration lengths approaching the middle of flame in a cylindrical combustion chamber resulted in a maximum reduction of PM2.5. An increase […]

Wow! Tom Reed Forced Draft TLUDs are great!

The Tom Reed Alpha Limited Forced Draft TLUD stoves (India) The six-inch and four-inch in diameter FD-TLUD stoves are powered by two AA batteries and are well known to be inexpensive and clean burning. The smaller stove was the “high combustion efficiency” stove used in a 2015 Round Robin test series at Regional Testing and […]

No More Carbon? 

The popular Jiko stove, photo by AIDG on Flickr With carbon prices low and support apparently shifting, perhaps thinking about market-based improved cook stoves is increasingly interesting? In the Millennium Villages studies, a high-end retail price of something like $10 was recommended to sell stoves directly into the market. (Adkins, Tyler, al, 2010) What can be […]

Thermal Efficiency: How High Can We Go?

From SAMUEL BALDWIN’S “BIOMASS STOVES: ENGINEERING DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND DISSEMINATION,” VITA, 1987 Various stove/pot/skirt combinations are achieving ~ 60% thermal efficiency.  How high can we go?  There may be other important factors? In ARC tests of modern Rocket stoves, a pot with an area of around 800cm2 scored 34% thermal efficiency. Increasing the area to […]

Iterative Development: Addressing Health & Climate Change

Iterative Development:  Addressing Health & Climate Change Thanks to the Osprey Foundation, ARC just finished building a new heating stove lab and we are experimenting with how to make very clean burning home heating stoves. The intended price points are considerably lower than higher emission stoves currently for sale. Zero Green Premium products cost less […]

Turndown Ratio (TDR) in Cooking and Heating Stoves

A cook stove can require a ~three to one turndown ratio to boil quickly and then not burn rice, tomato sauce, etc. High power boils food, ~one third of the high firepower simmers it to completion.  With a lid, even lower amounts of energy can maintain simmering temperatures. When the stove cannot turn down sufficiently […]

South/North Biomass

It has been fascinating to cross-pollinate learnings from biomass cook stoves typical of the Global South and biomass heating stoves used in the Global North. Biomass cook stoves are often used indoors without chimneys. They are not usually closed boxes. Primary air cannot be limited when the fuel door is open. Cook stoves are also […]