Re: Another Lurker pop's up!

[David Reynolds-Lacey <d.rl@virgin.net>]

Stovers,

 I think this reply covers questions raised by Ron and  Paul.  Tom, you asked at
the end of your email "But how did you know?" -  Ans. - I didn't, I just tried
it to find out.

Ron Larson wrote:

> 2.  One way to hurt your operation is to ask you too much and have too many
> competitors join your approach.  On the other hand, you have given the crux
> of your approach and maybe you won't mind others coming along after you.

I consider my own work now as being philanthropic and not commercially
orientated (I've left all that behind) therefore I am pleased to share MY OWN
ideas providing that others don't make profit from them, however please bear in
mind in this instance that I am working with someone else's initial design in
order to help them out whilst also helping myself and eventually others,  I am
therefore restricted as to what information I can divulge at this stage.

>
> 3.  Therefore please consider this in terms of asking for more information
> that might help developing countries - but in developed countries as well if
> you wish.  What part of what you are exploring is NOT appropriate right away
> for those areas of Africa where you have spent the most time?   As an
> example -  how important is the coppicing option?  Or, charcoaling?

Please don't misunderstand my mention of visits to developing countries, the
purpose for my past visits has been either (other) business related or as a
tourist, and not related to any work of the type I do now, although I have
always wandered from the "normal visitor" paths to find out what is going on in
the REAL country I'm visiting. I will now of course on future visits seek out
and visit stoves/sustainable energy related organisations or individuals, with
this in mind, I expect to be in SA during late June early July.

Coppicing is most important to me - growing and harvesting fuel is no different
to growing and harvesting food, therefore traditional crop tending skills with a
minimum extra training is all that is required.  I may be out on a limb here
(pardon the unintended pun)  because I am not an expert on the type of trees
that grow in say, for example, Africa or whether they can be coppiced or indeed
are already coppiced, perhaps someone can answer this. To my mind short rotation
coppice is probably the best source of  "managed" sustainable fuel, a coppiced
tree (or a pollarded one for that matter), correctly maintained, will produce
several tonnes of fuel for centuries and asks comparatively little in return.
The fuel produced is easily harvested and handled, it requires very little
preparation and with the correct burner it can be burnt wet (sappy) or dry,
either as faggots or chips. I am not convinced that charcoal, burnt in the
normal way (i.e producing radiant heat) is the way forward for heating cooking
pots, as moving the pot or the fuel bed involves more operator intervention, I
am a great believer in "fire and forget" with the only adjustment required being
to the air supply either manually or automatically and the occasionally addition
of fuel.  I will shortly be posting some questions about cooking practices and
any replies will help me expand some ideas that I have - or kill them
completely!

> 4.  You are obviously very interested in charcoaling.  What options have you
> discovered for using the pyrolysis gases other than the drying approach of
> Andrew?

I produce charcoal (inter alia) only to generate income, by selling it into the
local barbecue market, Areley Wood Enterprises is set up as a not-for-profit
organisation, limited (with an intentional lower case "l") only by my personal
guarantee, It must be eventually financially self sustainable as well as energy
self sustainable in order to prove my theory. I will continue to produce
charcoal by the retort method except for occasional "pollution" days (sorry
Ron!) when we demonstrate to the public the making of charcoal in traditional
turf clamps. I will be using some of the the pyrolysis gasses in a recirculating
steam dryer for firewood logs and some will be recycled back into the retort,
with any excess being burnt to produce flash steam for a turbine and/or heat for
a Stirling engine.

>
> 5.  Are there any more operational questions for the list?

Now I have broken the ice I will probably be posting more questions than answers
but I think it will be a while yet before I can consider becoming a net
contributor.

> 6.  Your list of conclusions was admirably short (drying and a forced-air,
> top-down recommendation).  Any others in a second tier?

All tests have been done with batch loading using what could be described as a
biomass dryer/gassifier/burner, the next stage is to design a fuel injection
system. I still intend to "play around" a little with air feed and combustion
chamber shape but we do have a burner that works as it is now. I will be working
with Ken Boak on a scaled down version for use as a cooking stove in the near
future.

David


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