[Stoves] Re Alexis Belonio article

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear David

>Look at old steam locomotives and the draft inducers -- 
>steam jets up the stack to pull air into the fire.

It should be possible to calcualte at what point a steam jet is better off 
in the flue than in the air entry point.

Using a superheating coil as a gas insulator, a large amount of heat can be 
contained in the steam coming into the fire.  Suppose for a moment that the 
steam entered the fire at 900 C and left the pot edge at 240.  It is not so 
lossy.

What about 600 C?  Or 400?  If the mass flow were severely limited?

The interesting difference between the loco and the stove is that we 
primarily want the air for mixing rather than for increasing the combustion 
rate, that is, for creating a well mixed burn instead of higher power from a 
limited physical size.  That leads me to believe (so far) that it is 
possible have an increase in overall efficiency because of the small amount 
of power required to stir things up.  It may be that people are injecting 
steam without regard to checking the emissions or the efficiency.

Should we start passing a spreadsheet back and forth among the interested?

Thanks
Crispin