[Stoves] Re-inventing the WoodGas Stove

[Paul S. Anderson]

Jeff and all,   (someone please relay this to the Yahoo Woodgas group.)

Let me "second" Tom's message with my own story.  Since meeting Tom 
Reed in 2001
when I saw his fan-driven prototype operate on a kitchen table, I have spent
five years on the T-LUD (IDD or WoodGas CampStove) technology.  My initial
drive was to get away from the need for the battery-powered fan.

In those five years I have made many natural draft variations of the T-LUD
gasifiers and as of August 2005 settled on one main natural draft model 
that is
now called the "Champion Stove" (it won the clean-combustion award at 
Stove Camp
2005.)  Pictures and dimensions are available, and we have been examining
implementation in Bolivia and India.

Concerning forced air, I agree with Tom that springs and pulleys and tires are
not good ways to get forced air.  With Tom as co-author of the presentation in
Chile in Nov 2004, I made and gave full instructions for a "tin can" 
version of
the WoodGas CampStove with a fan that is external to the fuel 
container.  It has
the exact same configuration of air holes as in the CampStove.  You can 
see that
at:
http://bioenergylists.org/contributors#Paul_Anderson    It uses an "air base"
and a computer fan or blower.

Interested people should note that the "Philips stove" by Paul v.d.S. 
is using a
fan, with its distinctive feature being a TED (thermoelectric device) to
generate its power.  But it is still with an electric fan.

Alexis Belonio uses an electrical fan (direct connection to electrical 
power) in
his gasifier units.  Very successful.

And I am turning to the use of forced air via fans and blowers.  (I will have
things to show at Stove Camp 2006 where "fans" is one of the themes.)  Costs
and life-span of force air devices and how to reliably get the 
electrical power
for them are, IMHO, the way to go to have an impact on cookstoves of 
all types,
and certainly for the small gasifiers.

So, Tom took over 10 years to move to forced air, and I needed "only" 5 years
(is this a form of "half-life of technology acceptance"?).  I hope that 
many of
you will NOT need 2.5 years more to get moving on electrically powered forced
air.

Suggestion:  Start with enough electrically-driven air power to 
accomplish your
combustion tasks, and then move to making it all be just as good but with less
and less power needed.

We look forward to your postings of results on the Stoves List Serve.

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


Quoting Thomas Reed <tombreed at comcast.net>:

> Dear Jeff and All:
>
> Jeff suggests a clockwork motor below for our woodgas stove.  
> Inventors are attracted to improve our Wood-Gas stove because there 
> are so many other ways than a battery and fan/blower to supply power 
> .  I spent a lot of time 1965-1995 trying to avoid a power source and 
> concluded that for clean, intense combustion, one needed more than 
> natural draft. I have bought clockword radios, made bellows, used 
> tires etc., but settled on a battery and fan in 1997 as the simplest. 
>  Batteries are readily recharged with cheap solar chargers.  So for < 
> $10 (in quantity) one has a renewable power source.
>
> I think your time might be better spent on improving the gasification 
> and combustion aspects of the stove.  I learned more from a simple 
> setup of a compressor and two flowmeters, one for gasification and 
> one for the combustion than I did from dozens of other experiments. 
> There are dozens of ways one might supply forced draft, and I 
> encourage all you inventors to try them. Meanwhile, most of the world 
> continues to cook badly, so I'm glad we have gotten this far. Yours 
> truly,
>
> TOM REED                BEF               WOODGASLLC


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