[Stoves] MANTLE LAMP PHYSICS and alcohol burning

[Paul S. Anderson]

Dear all,

Tom Reed, please forward Crispin's message (below) to the others you 
had on your
list of those interested in alcohol.  What is their involvement?

I am making sure that Eddie Draper (creator of the Britelyt) gets this message
(he is not on the Stoves listserve.)

Crispin, thank you for your emissions testing done during the lighting of the
stoves at ETHOS.  I hope that Dean has in his budget sufficient funds for the
purchase of that device (unless Aprovecho has one already). (I think Crispin
said it was about US$2000, so not a common item in our garage workshops!!)

I have always wondered how Crispin so quickly reported CO/CO2 ratios (COr) for
different stoves.  Now I know and I want one!!!!

IF there is a discussion about the COr and the instrument, please CHANGE the
subject line.  We want this current subject to stay with mantle lanterns and
with alcohol burning.

Crispin is 100% correct about the nature of the clean burn in the Lily stove,
the small alcohol burner we showed at ETHOS.  Small holes!!!   
precisely 3/64th
inch (I do not know the metric measurement.)  2/64th (that is 1/32nd) is too
small and 4/64th (that is 2/32nd or 1/16th inch) is too large.   Picky, picky
picky!!!!  but that 1/64th inch makes a big difference.  I have tried all of
them.  And, 3/64th is also the size of the holes in the Trangia alcohol 
burners
for campers.  There is much information about hole sizes in various stoves at
the zenstoves website:  http://zenstoves.net/Supplies-Holes.htm    I have not
studied those pages and tables, so someone else might want to take a look at
that and tell us of similarties and differences in the hole sizes of the
various stoves, including those for fuels other than alcohol.

Crispin mentioned a "low cost two-burner alcohol burning stove" he tested at
ETHOS.  That was the CleanCook stove made by Dometic AB and used in the 
alcohol
stove projects in Ethiopia and Brazil.  I believe the stove cost is about $60,
and with a single-burner stove also made or on its way for about US$40, but
others can correct me about that.  That technology involves a small "chimney
effect" that pulls in the alcohol vapors and the air for combustion.  So it
must have a taller flame than the tiny holes in the Lily burner and 
also in the
"beverage can stove" that is at Wikipedia (a great article, if you are
interested in the topic.)

Ethanol will give a small amount of black soot to the bottom of a cool 
pot.  But
does anyone know if that is the tiny and bad Particulate Matter (PM) or 
if it is
of large-enough size to not be so bad for health or environment?  (Even 
so, the
amount of PM is only a fraction of the PM for regular wood-burning stoves.)

I have been told that the burning of methanol is even cleaner.

The Lily burner with further innovations (easier to refill, etc) will be shown
again at the PCIA meeting in India in late March.  Should I bring the alcohol
mantle lantern also?

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 Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at gmail.com>:

> Dear Friends
>
> Just for the record, I tested the mantle lamp running on alcohol - the
> Britelyt - at ETHOS and it had a CO/CO2 ratio (COr) of 0.05% indicating an
> extremely clean burn.
>
> The small alcohol burner (made from a tin can) that Paul Anderson
> demonstrated, with carefully sized holes and hole orientation, was equally
> clean.  Both have numerous small flames burning in parallel.
>
> This shows that it is not necessary to have a high temperature to burn
> alcohol cleanly.  It also means that to get light, or significant amounts of
> it, one pretty much has to get a high temperature that accidentally, because
> of the porus mantle, creates small flames that burn cleanly.  Or is it the
> high temperature that makes it clean?
>
> A low cost two-burner alcohol burning stove was tested and found to have
> quite high COr which was reduced by 75% merely by lifting the pot up about
> 40 mm.  This gave more space for its much longer flames to complete burning.
>
> The main visible difference between the two burner stove and the can is the
> flame length, nothing else.  If the fuel is trying to burn in a flame
> running alongside a cold pot there is a significant difference in the CO
> produced by that condition alone.
>
> Regards
> Crispin
>
>
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