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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
Unfortunately, although introductions to lab tests warn that results do not predict actual performance, the recent use of lab data to earn carbon credits has made an unfortunate error more commonplace. For decades, introductions to lab tests have warned that only field-testing can determine actual efficiency, emissions, effectiveness, market validity, etc. The World Health Organization […]