[Stoves] BioBriquette testing

[Olof Nyström]

Hello all,

we are two engineering students from Sweden, now in Malawi,  and need some
help about fuel testing. We want to make fuel tests to compare different
biomass briquettes with charcoal and firewood (in terms of heat content/kg,
price/Joule etc). We are now thinking about possible ways to carry out these
tests.

We are planning to do something like a Water Boiling Test to make a
comparison, although this test is made to compare stoves and not fuels. Is
there any similar controlled standard tests that are more suited for testing
of fuels?

One problem we face is the comparison between charcoal and briquettes, since
we believe that the charcoal needs to be tested on a charcoal stove while
the briquettes are more suited for use in a firewood stove. To make a fair
comparison these stoves should have similar efficiency, and this may be a
problem. Anybody with experience on this topic?

Regards,

Olof Nyström