[Stoves] Burning coal in cookstoves

[John Davies]

Crispin,

A little clarity on my thoughts.  I use the term wood ash very loosely. My
thoughts go in the direction that any wood would burn to ash before the coal
was giving off sulphur compounds. In my TLUD coal stove. the ignition is
started by burning about 100g of wood kindling above a layer of fine coal.
The ash from this wood forms a layer above the coal which can be clearly
seen once the wood has been burned. after a while it cannot be clearly seen.
Has it dropped into the coal bed below , or has it left the bed as particles
in the flue gas ???. I do not know.!

With anything up to  5 Kg of coal to be burned, I doubt that there is enough
ash to capture all the sulphur. I also doubt that a user would be prepared
to add sufficient wood chips into the coal bed to achieve removal.

It has to be borne in mind, that those using coal do so because it is much
cheaper than firewood in their location. So while the idea is interesting to
us, it is unlikely to be utilized by the end user, unless they are forced to
do so.

At this stage I believe that our aim should be to improve the combustion
efficiency, make all the usable heat available, and remove the toxic gasses
from the inside of the dwelling. This alone would reduce coal consumption by
up to 50 %. And eliminate many deaths due to CO poisoning. That would be a 
huge step forward.

Wishing all a prosperous and happy 2008.

John Davies.

> Thanks for that.
>
> Wood ash? Not wood?  Interesting...
>
> The implies that the coal probably has to be crunched up pretty small in
> order to distribute the ash reasonably.
>
> Think so?