The Anila Biomass stove designed by Professor Ravikumar has led me to build a version using a six gallon steel propane tank with a heavy steel cylinder running down the center, complete with the conical grate in the bottom. On the side of the propane tank I built an airtight porthole (for loading and unloading char) held on with 8 bolts and sealed with furnace cement. There are four quarter inch holes to bring gas from the outer cylinder compartment to the area near the top of the conical grate, near the bottom of the inner cylinder. Big question: Where is the secondary air, like all of my other stoves have? How to burn the excess smoke? So, I filled the interior sealed cavity with about 3 gallons of paper slices and wood chips that have been sitting inside in a 5 gallon bucket for over a year. (Very Dry) I filled the inner cylinder with dry hardwood slices and started the charge with a bit of sliced candle wax and alcohol. It burnt nicely until the heat reached the lower third of the inner cylinder, and even though I could see charcoal glowing, it started to belch excessive smoke...clouds of smoke that was NOT burning! I added more dry softwood pieces, hoping to build more flame, but got even more smoke. I blew some compressed air in via the top, and got a couple feet of flame shooting out of the top, but it soon went out, and then even more smoke. After about two hours, the smoke diminished, and I added some hunks of wood charcoal and heated 5 gallons of water, and then left it to burn itself out. (Tomorrow I can empty the char, when things are cold.) The whole tank is very hot, so I'm considering insulating the whole works.. Should I add a fan under the tank, blowing upward in the direction of the grate? Should I introduce secondary air somehow? Any ideas? I really need to USE all this smoke, so I need some way to get to burn! I'm even willing to inject some propane at the top, if it will get rid of the smoke. Or perhaps a small computer fan? Have any readers used this stove? How did it work? (Oh, BTW, I forgot the magic rocks.) Thanks.
-- Ray Menke User of Wood gas camp stove XL, Anderson Champion TLUD-ND, many forced air Midge sizes, and a very small Peko Pe. (Most are non-smokers!) _______________________________________________ Stoves mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address Stoves mailing list to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site: http://www.bioenergylists.org/ [email protected] http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
