[Stoves] Comments about T-LUDs: Tiny units

[psanders at ilstu.edu]

Dear Frank and friends,

About the making of Tiny T-LUDs (one inch diameter):

1.  I really like the idea of the cardboard.  Use the corrugations to 
allow air
flow.  Roll it long and tight, perhaps squash it evenly along its length.

2.  Richard Stanley has reported that at least some cardboards have
fire-retardant glues that would be an added complication.

3.  Perhaps using the "waxed cardboard" might give a good result.   (BTW, one
local supermarket told me they do not have waxed cardboard any more, so I have
not found any yet.)

4.  Cardboard is a paper product and therefore is already "processed" (made of
pulp and formed in specific ways) and becomes a "processed fuel" that is
consistent and dense (that is, the paper, not counting the corrugated air
spaces).

5.  Slide the skinny long roll down into an insulative non-combustible 
tube. Easy to make, easy to refill, consistent fuel that is abundant.  
(If this can
work for a developing country, the supply of appropriate cardboard will
increase.)  Cardboard that has been pyrolyzed will hold its charcoal in the
original shape if not disturbed.  That is sufficient to prevent the falling of
embers downward in the corrugations, so we do not need to be worried about
having too large of gaps in the "fuel pile" which is simply a roll of
cardboard.

6.  Possible application:  A slender glass tube could be the chimney in 
which a
long flame is burning and giving light.  The chimney causes the needed natural
draft to suck in the secondary air at the junction of the glass with the
insulated tube of a Tiny T-LUD that is 50 cm (20 inches) long and 
filled with a
rolled strip of waxed cardboard.  Easier said than done.  Main 
challenges would
be the controlling of the primary and secondary air to have a balance with the
natural draft.  Blowing by mouth at the start would make initial functioning
possible.  Tar accumulation on the glass would be a problem to avoid.

7.  Concerning use of pure steam in this or in any other combustion system,
there is no air (and no O2) in pure steam, only vaporized H2O.  If the steam
jet can make the air move, that is a different story.  I was not sure what you
were saying in this and a previous message.

Paul




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