[Stoves] Gas Sensing

[frank]

Hi Dean,

I like the idea.  A small 'standard' room to be used to 1) compare 
stoves, 2) train equipment users, 3) check testing equipment and 4) 
certify labs wanting to do the tests.  In  fact I think a standard room 
will be needed. Wish I could work on this with you. Having this mixing 
chamber in a small room (on top?) seems much better than having it in a 
stack. I do wonder how hot it will get in the room 10' X 10' and if that 
will make a difference.

I have been working with small filter and CO equipment using cigarettes 
as a fuel. The tar has been blocking up lines and is -shocking- to see 
how much there is from one little cigarette. Coating the end of a 
cigarette with a ring of silica  grease and sliding it into a metal 
funnel worked. Fitted directly to the end of a 2.5" glass chamber 
(rubber stopper) with a glass filter at the other end solved the 
blockage problem and most of the tar was on the filter with only a small 
coating left to build up on the side of the cylinder. So I wonder about 
these tars and where they will accumulate in these other systems, if 
they will be measure with the nepholometer (or lost to the side) and how 
they will effect other equipment if the gas is not pre-filtered?   

Looking forward to seeing this and working with it at stove camp.

Frank



Dean Still wrote:

>Dear Frank,
>
>What do you think of the following idea? Did you see Nordica's IAP meter at
>ETHOS? The small sealed box measures CO and PM in room air so it is not a
>combustion analyzer but instead tracks levels of CO and PM in cooler room
>air. The IAP meter could conceivably be used to compare stove emissions if
>the room was standardized. In "Comparing Cook Stoves" the 18 tests done in
>the Test Kitchen and under the hood had quite similar results.
>
>I'd like to make a Test Kitchen next week to be used with the IAP meter.
>
>Imagine a 10' by 10' by 8' room with a door. Enter the room and close the
>tight fitting door. There is a 6" in diameter hole in one of the walls of
>the room. There is a hood above a testing bench on the opposite wall with an
>electric fan. There is a gauge that tells how much air is going through the
>exit pipe from the hood. The exit pipe enters another small room with a 6"
>in diameter hole in the opposite wall. The IAP meter is in a determined
>position in the room. All the smoke and gases enter the hood and then fill
>the next room containing the IAP meter. All the smoke and gases leave the
>IAP meter room through the 6" in diameter hole. The air exchange rate is
>controlled and describable. The fan is adjusted to create a described
>velocity through the pipe leaving the hood. After the test, a WBT or better
>yet a CCT in which local cooks run the experiment, the data is downloaded to
>a computer for analysis using Nordica's software.
>
>We could build this next week and see how big the holes should be to create
>the ppm of CO and PM to be in the best range for the IAP meter. We could
>test a couple of stoves and see how the results compare to the tests done
>with the hood. We can try to replicate the findings in the book in which the
>hood and the Test Kitchen results paralleled each other.
>
>If it works, then we should have a little more than $2,000 method for
>testing stoves that measures both CO and PM and has replicable data for use
>in regional testing centers and in Paul Anderson's garage.
>
>Best,
>
>Dean
>
>
>
>
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>  
>

-- 
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