[Stoves] Laboratory Comparison - but industrial standards for testing first!

[frank]

Tom and Stovers,

Just change the word 'compost' to 'stoves' and read on......

I have been involved in the US Composting Council since the beginning 
and what they have done I think would work very nicely for the stove group.

We first put together the Test Methods for the Examination of Compost 
and Composting. (TMECC). This is a book that contains all the test 
procedures out there that pertained to testing organics that could have 
anything to do with compost. Many out of AOAC and Standard Methods and 
EPA. It was a collection. Some we developed ourselves. And some we 
modified for our purpose. This was funded by large companies. Lots of 
donated time. Now the USDA is holder of it and has the job of updating.

Then we formed the Compost Analysis Proficiency Testing Program (CAP) 
program. Bob Miller from Colorado State University runs several of these 
type of programs. He picks out (with help) a collection of tests from 
the TMECC that are required for testing compost from composters in the 
program. This program is fully paid for by the labs that want to be in 
the program. Nine samples are sent out four times a year to all the labs 
in the program to test. Results returned to him to preform all the 
statistics between labs and returns the evaluation back to the labs so 
they can see how they are doing.

Then the Seal of Testing Assurance Program (STA). Anyone wanting to have 
their compost tested by one of the CAP labs pays to be in this program. 
They send their compost in to be tested and the results are required to 
be made available to the anyone wanting to purchase the compost and a 
copy sent in to the STA. Results are confidential.

Government agencies are now requiring any compost they purchase to be 
from a STA compost facility. That helps the composter recover their 
fees. They need it tested by a CAP lab and that helps recover the lab 
fees for being in the program.  The more government agencies we can get 
to require that all compost they purchase come from an STA facility 
benefits all involved and the program grows.

The main group gets money from yearly conferences, advertising etc.

At first there was a LOT of volunteer work to gather methods for the TMECC.


Regards

Frank








Tom Miles wrote:

>Penn, Charlie,
>
>Testing the (WBT) test for the specific issues that have been raised would
>seem to be in order. How would you test the tests? Can you design a suitable
>test program to do that? 
>
>Let's assume that there are at least eight labs that could perform the WBT
>and emissions tests, three are NGO or government labs, at least five
>universities are interested in stove and two are private labs that test and
>certify wood heating appliances.
>
>NGO - 		Aprovecho Research Center http://aprovecho.org/
>
>University - 	UICIC Bond Research Group
>http://sftp.cee.uiuc.edu/research/bondresearch/ 
>			UC Berkeley CEIHD
>http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu/hem/page.asp?id=42
>			Colorado State University, Global InnoVation Center,
>Bryan Willson http://www.eecl.colostate.edu/  
>			Iowa State University, Mark Bryden
>http://www.iastate.edu/Inside/06/0113/bryden.shtml 
>			Johannesburg, South Africa
>	
>
>Government		USA EPA (PCIA) Jim Jetter
>http://www.bioenergylists.org/en/epatesting 	
>			CANMET - Canada, Skip Hayden
>	
>http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/es/etb/ctec/cetc01/htmldocs/Publications/factsheet_re
>sidential_commercial_combustion_e.htm  
>
>Private Labs	Omni Environmnetal Services, Inc. - Paul Tiegs
>http://www.omni-test.com/  
>			Intertek ETL, Wisconsin Hearth products
>
>Other http://www.bioenergylists.org/en/emissions  
>
>What testing would you do to answer the questions posed by Crispin and Paul?
>Who would fund the testing?
>
>Aprovecho has an inventory of data from tests conducted using the WBT. Can
>that be used/analyzed? Two changes in the method between Apro tests for the
>same stove seem to be the load in the form of the pot size - 1 L, 2.5 L, 5 L
>and the boiling times.   
>
>Tom
>
>			
>
>
>     
>
>
>
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>http://info.bioenergylists.org
>
>
>  
>

-- 
Frank Shields
Soil Control Lab
42 Hangar way
Watsonville, CA  95076
(831) 724-5422 tel
(831) 724-3188 fax
frank at compostlab.com
www.compostlab.com