Look Ma, no fan! Natural draft, biochar producing, pyrolytic blueflame LuciaStove

A long way from life testing but this proof of concept made my day. Inner forge shape has been changed, as have the top burner jets, but she pyrolyses just fine. So I far have done full runs with reed grasses, nut shells and husks, leaves, and rice husks. The flame is a nice blue and the emissions seem to be low (more details soon). There was a slight tar formation in the first part of each test run but as it got to temp that cleared up. Fuel could be added without causing problems throughout the tests. Clearly a lower power version of the LuciaStove but should you run out of power its nice to know you can still cook and heat without having to cut down trees or be dependant on expensive fuels. (Each run was about an hour and 20 minutes, but could have been longer if more fuel had been added during the run)

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• LuciaStove
• natural draft
• gasifier
• biochar production
• woodgas
• pyrolysis
• rice
• husk
• nut
• shells
• reed
• grasses

[hiramcook]

Wow Nat, that is one neat stove! I take my hat off to your craftsmenship.

[WorldStove]

Hiram shes nothing compared to the stoves you make you are one of the true stove masters. Just wish you produced them as does tinny. By the way, remember your bunsen burner idea? I may have got it to work. More later

[benniblueyes]

Despite the absence of a blower, in my opinion, the flame (the beautiful blue flame) has the same power of a large burner (at medium power) of a common gas hob.

Excellent job, nat.

[WorldStove]

Grazie Maurizio! The flame is not as hot as it looks and is still temperamental, but I am happy about getting a blue flame with only wood and grasses. Am still working on the fan versions too, will be developing both in parallel

[sitonapotatopanotis]

Was that a power source i saw plugged in at the base?

[WorldStove]

Nope, its a thermometer probe. Ive noticed that the fan free stove gets hotter and so Ive been plotting temp curves for each component. Ill post some updates soon so you can see there really is no fan.

[NCHiker1970]

In time you will figure it out, I have every bit of confidence in you! This is going to be something great when you have it the way you want it to be!

[86thmountmerrion]

Wow your ideas sound very interesting will there be a vid of the finished product.?

Also just wondering,If you were to make the air intake holes at the bottom of the stove smaller would that cause the air to be sucked in at a higher rate and help the combustion of the stove?

[WorldStove]

Thanks Drak, shes a loooooong way from where I want her. Trying to make the flame harder to blow out and make it impossible for big wood to be used in order to help save trees. Ill keep posting.

[WorldStove]

No boil times yet not yet happy with the flame. in this clip she is burning only grass and wood, no starter but the emissions are not where I would like them to be (yet). As for the gas wick, while I do like the small flame a gas wick can provide (good for keeping things warm) it makes it hard to add fuel so I have been working on a new series of vortexes to allow an inner air column to act as a gas wick

[WorldStove]

I know what you mean. I go grocery shopping with a calliper, cans are so much faster than the lathe ;o)