Vesto +_ Switchgrass Pellets Crispin Pemberton-Pigott, New Dawn Engineering, Roger Samson, REAP Canada, January 5,2008 Densified Canadian switchgrass pellets were burned in a VESTO (New Dawn Engineering) stove in the gasification mode. Dear Grass Burners Roger Samson was here today with Stephanie and he brought along a Mayon Turbo stove with rice husks and a big bag of switchgrass pellets. We tried this 'fuel of the future' in the Vesto which first required putting a small sheet of newspaper at the bottom to keep the little pellets in, and second perforating the sheet to let in a least a small amount of primary air. It was packed pretty tightly. The pellets are about 15 MJ per litre. We lit it on top with a small wood fire and it got going nicely. It burned very much like a Vesto with the 'gasifier mode' engaged meaning that it ran with very little primary air getting through and a floating bed of flame perhaps 7 cm above the fuel. Very pretty. The CO/CO2 ratio was stable at 2% and had no odour or visible smoke. I will get some picture posted and a movie with a description by Roger. The flamefront was shallow, as Alex describes with wood pellets. Nothing really to add - it burned completely and gave off lots of heat. Regards Crispin
