Assessing Cook Stove Performance: Field and Lab Studies of Three Rocket Stoves Comparing the Open Fire and Traditional Stoves in Tamil Nadu, India on Measures of Time to Cook, Fuel Use, Total Emissions, and Indoor Air Pollution
Nordica MacCarty, Dean Still, Damon Ogle, Thomas Drouin, Aprovechoi Research Center, January 2008

ETHOSi STOVE CAMP AUG.4-8
Dean Still, Aprovechoi Research Center, April 25, 2008

Dear All,

Stove Campi this year will take place August 4-8 here at the new lab which is on 4 beautiful acres with a nice river on two sides of the property. Folks are invited to camp here near the river! We will cook on wood burning stoves for lunch and dinner and bake tasty bread in a Rocket bread oven. We can have bonfires at night and figure out how to distribute one billion stoves.

Paul Van der Sluis from Philipsi may be able to attend. Friends in India are trying to buy and send us a BPi stove. Can anyone in India assist them? I'll pay costs, shipping, etc.

Pam Baldinger, now in Darfur with USAIDi, very much supports this year's theme and contest. The team that cooks corn flour using the least fuel, etc. wins the more and more coveted Dr. Kirk Smith Cat Pee Award and $250! The most effective solutions will be sent to Pam.

Let's prove that cooking with wood can be done with very little fuel! It's important! Let's help refugees.

There's room for 25 participants. Book early!

ETHOSi Stove Campi costs are:
Instruction/Participation: $100 students $200 others
Camping (5 nights): $25 students $50 others
Five dinners cooked here with wood on Rocket and other stoves: $25

Best,

Dean

Aprovechoi Research Center
Fred's Island
Cottage Grove, Oregon
541 767 0287
http://www.aprovecho.org

Designii Principles for a Retained Heat Cookeri
Dean Still, Aprovechoi Research Center, April 20, 2008

1.) Air exchanges are more important than insulation

Making Rocket Stoves in China
Dean Still, Aprovechoi Research Center, March 28, 2008

Hi Stovers!

A lot of the folks on the List saw the Rocket stoves that we are making in China at ETHOSi. John Page and I just spent ten days at the factory near Shanghai. Here’s a quick update on the China project.

The big news is that the lightweight, refractory ceramic combustion chambers are now being extruded at the rate of about one thousand per day. You can imagine that John and Dean were grinning ear to ear, watching the materials being mixed three times in the big grinders. When thoroughly mixed, the clay is extruded into the combustion chamber shape, pushed by a 100HP motor, and every twenty seconds or so, another combustion chamber is ready for drying. (There are photos of all this.) Drying takes about 30 days and then firing takes place in the huge coal fired kiln, as big as a supermarket. I think that we can fire about 20,000 combustion chambers at one go. The kiln is being fired and emptied simultaneously. The clay deposit is located one kilometer from the kiln.

The cast iron stove top was adjusted; raising the pot supports two millimeters, after further emission testing in the lab showed a reduction in COi and PMi with a little higher clearance.

We have the first order for a container of stoves, which is going to India. The factory has arranged for a good set up price (about $600) for the packaging. The six sided box can be printed in the local language with desired designs and logos.

We are investigating shipping costs to and duties for all countries. There are different duties for whole stoves and for stove parts. We’re going to write up our experience and send it around to everyone, bit by bit, trying to share what we learn from this project.

You can contact me for the stove catalog, questions, etc…

All Best,

Dean
Aprovechoi Research Center
www.aprovecho.org
541-767-0287 Oregon, USA
dstill@epud.net

New Factory Under Construction

Laboratory Comparison of the Global-Warming Potential of Six Categories of Biomass Cooking Stoves

Aprovechoi Mass Producing Stoves
Dean Still, Aprovechoi Research Center, September 4, 2007
Officials from Shengzhou Stove and Aprovechoi Seal the Deal

Summary of Stove Campi 2007
Dean Still, Nordica MacCarty, Aprovechoi Research Center
Tom Miles and Paul Anderson Amaze Folks at Stoves Camp

Gasifying Rocket Stove
Dean Still, Nordica MacCarty, Aprovechoi Research Center, July 12, 2007
THINGi

What is an Improved Cook Stove?
Dean Still, Aprovechoi Research Center, Partnership for Clean Indoor Air Biannual Conference Bangalore, India March 20-23, 2007, June 21, 2007

Laboratory Testing of Rocket Stoves of Various Capacities As Compared to the Three Stone Fire
Dean Still, Nordica MacCarty, Aprovechoi Research Center, April 2007

In an effort to understand the relationship between stove capacity and fuel use and emissions the performance of three sizes of rocket stoves were compared.

The stoves were tested with the 2003 UCB revised Water Boiling Test. Pots that were integral to the stoves were used without a lid. Kiln dried Douglas fir at approximately 10% moisture content was burned in all tests. Only one test was performed on the household stoves. Therefore, results are not statistically valid but should be useful for general comparison. The [attached] graphs show results from three Rocket type stoves as compared to a carefully tended Three Stone Fire.