[Stoves] Heating/thermal usage - China workshop notes

[Paul S. Anderson]

Friends,

At the ARECOP workshop in China, eight proposals (one from each of eight
countries) for thermal applications of gasifiers for cottage industry/small
industry were presented and discussed and identified for further efforts, some
to receive ARECOP funding assistance.

Many of the proposers are not on the Stoves or Gasifier list serves, so any
replies should be should be sent also to the "ARECOP secretariat - Asia -
Indonesia" <secretariat at arecop.org> for forwarding to the individuals 
involved.
My report is NOT an official statement, but is the best that my notes will
allow.

Professor Makunda of IISc - Bangalore - is a world-recognized expert on
gasification and combustion.  In the end, he recommended Top-Lit
Updraft (T-LUD) gasifiers for 6 projects, all with forced air/blowers.  
I begin
with the other two:

1.  Professor Alexis Belonio of the Philippines attended the workshop.  His
knowledge of T-LUD gasification is well known from his "Rice Husk Gas Stove
Handbook" that is at the Bioenergylist.org website.  He was a great resource
person to whom many of the participants also looked for assistance, especially
if rice husks are an available fuel.  Alexis could have chosen a T-LUD
application, but instead, he will focus on the possible application of the
"steam box" in the combustion area of the "conical grate" rice husk 
stove, also
known as the Mayon Stove that Roger Samson has brought to the attention of the
Stove List Serve.

The "steam box" is the invention (unless prior art can be shown) of Mr. Hao of
Kunming, Yunnan Province, China.  The workshop participants visited Mr. Hao's
factory and saw about ten different models of stoves.  (My discussion of stove
combustion will be in a later message, so I will say no more here about
Alexis's project.)

2.  Bulath (short for a very long name that ends in Bulathgama) of Sri Lanka
proposes a gasifier project to work with a very large pineapple fruit drier
that currently runs on 7.5 liters of kerosene per hour for 20 hours per batch,
so it is very costly as currently operated.  The process heat must go 
to a heat
exchanger (only clean hot air can have contact with the fruit) that is with
small passageways, resulting in concerns about blockages if anything except
clean gas is burned.  Therefore, no regular T-LUD is recommended.  The
recommended gasifiers are either Belonio's large, two chambers plus cyclonic
filters, T-LUD gasifier (cost is about US$5000) or a full-gasifier of 
the Ankor
downdraft type with full filtering (as is needed for running IC engines), at a
cost of about US$15,000 to $18,000.  Even at the $15K price, the pay-back
period is something like 6 months or less.  Bulath will be working 
closely with
the manufacturers of the driers.

3.  Abdul Shakoor Sindhu of Pakistan is looking to have relatively small T-LUD
gasifiers provide the heat for the tandoor (tandoori) ovens that are used to
bake roti and other things.

4.  C. K. Kumarswamy of Bangalore, India, is focused on the relatively large
cookstoves of the roadside restaurants.  High heat is needed for several hours
at 3 meal times per day.  Fuel consumption currently is about 3 kg of wood per
hour per stove (number of pots per stove is not in my notes.).  Some form of
T-LUD is to be used.

5.  From two different cities (500 km apart) in Indonesia, Dang 
Tanoewiangga and
Hermanto Sudjarwo are interested in two food products made from palms.  Both
products involve boiling away the water.  One is to make palm oil from 
palm sap
collected from the trunks of some palm trees.  The other is to make coconut
brown sugar from the juice of the white coconut meat (copra).  These use
round-bottom pots of about 30 - 40 liters, and are stirred almost 
constantly to
evaporate about 24 kg of water, leaving about 6 kg of oil.  T-LUD 
gasifiers with
fuel chambers of 20 cm Diameter x 70 - 90 cm Height (or 30 cm D x 50 - 
70 cm H)
are recommended for the approximately 4-hour process that currently uses about
2 kg of wood per hour.

6.  Rajan Thapa of Nepal explained the seasonal production (Dec to March) of
Lapsi candy made from fruit.  The 100 liter pots (half-barrel of 55 gal drums)
need to come to a boil and then simmer, for a total of 2 hours.  The 
calculated
size of the fuel chamber of an appropriate T-LUD gasifier is 30 cm D x 
35 cm H.
(We hope to have a taste of the Lapsi candy and the coconut brown sugar at the
2007 meeting in Bangalore.)

7.  Ms. Woranuch Jangsawang of Thailand is to deal with institutional 
cooking at
a large temple near Bangkok.  About 500 people are served at each of two meals
every day.  Multiple large pots are used now with LPG as the fuel.  Not all of
the temples are that large, but there are 34,000 temples in Thailand, so a
biomass gasifier solution to the situation could be widespread and would be
seen by millions who obtain some of their education at the temples.

8.  The three men from Lao (Laos) are Soukanh Vannapho, Vanna Tipangna, and
Houmpheng Theuambounmy.  They have the application with the largest amount of
heat required.  In landlocked Laos, salt is produced from brine (salt water)
brought from deep wells.  132 production units (with 2 workers at each 
one) are
shallow metal trays with a fire running under each one to a chimney, 
for 8 to 10
hours each batch, some working two batches per day.  Each one needs 360 kg per
day of wood, 240 kg per day of sawdust, or 480 kg per day of rice husks.  (I
think that is for each batch.)  The T-LUD gasifier size was calculated to be
1.7 meters Diameter by 2 meters Height.

For each of the eight applications, the participant is to verify the data and
methods about the processes involved, make adjustments, and correspond 
with the
ARECOP office and with Prof. Makunda.  Designs and technical drawings 
are to be
submitted for review and possible revisions within a couple of months.  Then
comes construction of the gasifier and field testing with the application.

The above information is incomplete.  Each participant has more details and
better records of the discussions.  I look forward to reading of their
progress.

Oh yes, there is also an nineth proposal, but it is not a candidate for the
ARECOP assistance.  I will be doing some experiments and testing in August and
September and reporting the results to the workshop participants.  The topics
include:

A.  Steam box impact on small (e.g., Champion) T-LUD stoves

B.  Improved combustors for small gasifiers

C.  Fan power (to be studied at Stove Camp)

D.  Gasifying rice husks

E.  Some stove issues with Mr. Hao

F.  Possible applications of the Macula up-draft gasifier.

So, these are busy days.

The third report will need to wait until tomorrow.

Paul

-- 
Paul S. Anderson, Ph.D., Geography professor - Emeritus
Telephone:  USA-309-452-7072 (residence and office)
Internet site:  www.ilstu.edu/~psanders
For my gasifier stoves info, go to:
http://bioenergylists.org/contributors#Paul_Anderson



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