[Stoves] Understanding "charcoal making" stoves. Was: energy lost in charcoal making and briquetting

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Steve

> AJH wrote:
>> Non authoritatively my first bash at it in the context of this list
>> would be: a device burning a fuel, preferably biomass derived, to
>> provide heat primarily for cooking.
>>
> Well that negates current usage, which includes stoves as heating
> devices. Stove is usually qualified by Wood and cook in conventional 
> usage.
> Gasifier to my mind is a distraction, since gasification is a critical
> part of all combustion, but if the primary output of a stove is burnable
> gas, then it should be a gasifier stove.

OK... consider a device that produced a "burnable gas".... in contrast to a 
device that produced "a burned gas that could not be ignited."

Would not the former be a "gasifier" and the latter a "stove"?

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoves and   at 
http://www.answers.com/topic/stove we see definitions of "stove". 
Interestingly, there is no mention of a "gasifier stove" at either source.

>
> How  many variables characterise a stove ?
> Fuel,
> Fuel size,
> Combustion zone
> Combustion chamber material
> Primary air
> Secondary air
> Primary output useage.
>
> My first 7, which critically define a stove.

Those aspects of a stove are indeed important.
>
> We seem to have gone mad on taxonomy in the last few weeks, its being
> driving biologists mad for centuries too.

Not having an accepted definition of a stove or a gasifier is indeed enough 
to drive Stove and Gasifier list members mad. :-)
>
Best wishe,

Kevin