[Stoves] torrefied biomass and plastic

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Tom
Thomas Reed wrote:
> ...del...
>
> My Good Friend and Guru, Agua Das, says "it takes a calorie to cook a 
> calorie".  I suspect this is a mnemonic device rather than the result of 
> a measurement. 
>
> However, it would be nice to quantify this statement. 
>
> Our woodgas stove burns 45 min on 200 g of pellets which have a heating 
> value of ~19MJ/g (850MJ) = 203 kCal.   A pound of rice would have ~ 4 
> times as much energy and maybe one could live on a pound of food a day 
> (dry basis).  So maybe it takes 1/4 cal to cook a calorie.
>   

While Agu Das's statement might err a bit in detail, it is a brilliant 
concept. It enables one to bring a fundamental perspective to cooking. 
It is similar to the energy concept of "How many barrels of oil are 
produced for one barrel of energy input?"
> I hope someone can make this more quantitative. 
>   

Lanny Hansen has been rating his stoves based on "How many grams of wood 
are required per serving of Pinto Beans." Lanny is "right up there" with 
Ague Das, in terms of the fundamental perspective he brings to stoves 
and cooking.

Perhaps you, Agu Das, and Lanny could configure some test protocol that 
relates how a particular cooking relates energy inputs to food energy 
output? You could perhaps call it "The BEI-FEO Test: "Biomass Energy In 
- Food Energy Out Test".

Such a test would far more meaningful than a simple Water Boiling Test.

Best wishes,

Kevin
> Onward,
>
> TOM REED 
>
> Richard Stanley wrote:
>   
>> AJH , Please do not refer to the briquette as "Richard's briquette":  
>> That ignores the hundreds who have contributed to its development and  
>> continue to do so, globally.
>> Concerning the subject of using polyethylene plastic shopping bag..  
>> While they may not according to your insights be helpful technically  
>> or-environmentally, they are otherwise to start fires in the third  
>> world.
>>
>> Where they offer little relative to other resources available, they  
>> will not tend to be used but where they do they will. The  very  
>> suggestion that we should  ban their use in the mass world poses two  
>> questions to me after lifting my jaw ...... By what authority do we  
>> speak in making such a statement and what indeed would one supplement  
>> them with if one had such authority...?
>>
>> That,  too, I  should ignore the insights of such as yourself, is as  
>> well, arrogant on my own part... I hear you technically, and will  
>> tread with greater caution, myself.
>>
>> As to torrification of a plastics blend briquette (at least to the  
>> degree that resting a briquette against the stove to pre heat it and  
>> to drive off aromas = torrification), no worries:  It simply does not  
>> smell good and would smoke quite a bit if pre heated in this manner.  
>> Its very unlikely that it would ever happen,  frankly...
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Richard Stanley,
>> Legacy Foundation
>> www.legacyfound.org
>> State of Jefferson
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 12, 2008, at 2:46 PM, AJH wrote:
>>
>>   
>>     
>>> On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:51:16 +0200, IPC wrote:
>>>
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> In a nutshell, don't try pyrolysing plastics unless you really  
>>>> know what you
>>>> are about.  "Torrefaction" should be spelled "taurefaction" in this
>>>> connection - pure bull.
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> I think most of us have agreed on this point but the discussion may
>>> have got a bit confused with regard to Richard's briquettes.
>>>
>>> I would be hesitant about being totally prescriptive about avoiding
>>> all plastics in these briquettes until I see good evidence to suggest
>>> a danger. If people are already used to burning plastics for
>>> heat/cooking then banning them will not serve any purpose in the
>>> absence of substitutes. The plastic seems to serve two purposes in the
>>> briquette ( binding and adding calorific value) and two social
>>> functions (providing an environmental cleansing and useful employment
>>> collecting a raw material).
>>>
>>> As venting or breathing in partially burned or volatilised polymers is
>>> not healthy op environmentally sound then I'll agree they should be
>>> out of any talk about torrefying briquettes made with them.
>>>
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> Sorry to enter this thread late - I have been waiting for someone  
>>>> else to
>>>> say it.
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> Better late than never. I've often intended to comment on a thread but
>>> by the time I read all the replies the thread has died!
>>>
>>> AJH
>>>
>>>
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