[Stoves] Two ways of testing combustion/emissions

[Paul S. Anderson]

Stovers (especially Testing folks Tami, Crispin, and others)

Can we say that there are two major ways of testing emissions depending on
whether or not there is "open air" or "confined air"?  You can provide better
names, please.

1.  Open air is like the 3-stone fire, Jiko, and many other stoves.  Ambient air
enters "as needed", and we run tests like what is at Aprovecho with sampling of
flue gases that are collected under a hood, that is, collected AFTER some
amount of ambient air has entered in with the emissions.

2.  Confined air is like an Onil stove (Rocket in a plancha stove) and like the
biomass grill by Chip Energy (updraft micro-gasifier).  In these and some
others the gases are still confined inside the stove and chimney, therefore
without dilution by ambient air.

At ETHOS Crispin had his "handy-dandy" gas analyzer!!!  Impressive.  Stick in
the probe and get readings.  It is based on direct flue gases, as in the
confined air type, not the diluted gases as in the open air type.

I have been learning a little about this.  The gas analyzer is (I believe) an
established testing instrument in the furnace business.  Furnaces are "confined
air" devices, so just stick the probe into the chimney.  There are also
differences between combustion analyzers and emissions analyzers, about which I
am still learning.

Chip Energy (Paul Anderson and partner Paul Wever) is currently working on its
SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant funded by the EPA.  We have
budgeted for purchasing emissons / combustion testing equipment.  Our project
is for the biomass furnace (seen at www.chipenergy.com ) and we are moving
toward the "confined air" type of equipment.  Possibly the Testo 350 equipment.
http://www.testo350.com/

That equipment will be also available for stove testing!!  Right here in central
Illinois.  So we will be learning a lot about that type of emissions /
combustion testing in the coming months.

My question and request for assistance:

A.  Please help me understand the relationships between the data from the "open
air" testing systems such as at Aprovecho and the "confined air" testing
systems as with the gas analyzer emissions probes.  This discussion will
probably need to be subdivided into the major data groups:
CO    CO2    O2   (we will have all three directly measured)
PM
Other gases

B.  What is the significance (or lack of significance) of these two different
testing systems ___concerning cookstoves____?

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





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