Testing of the Sampanda stove 12.07.2010

The Sampanda stove from India was trialled in Cambodia. See bioenergy lists for more information:
http://www.bioenergylists.org/content/testing-sampanda-sto

Selection of volunteers for stove testing in Cambodia 02.07.2010

An adaptation of the Kitchen Performance Test (KPT) will be used. It has been modified to account for the fact that this is not an assessment of a stove implementation project but is a feasibility study for deployment, and assumes the user is not familiar with the stove operation – since it is significantly different to operating a three stone fire for example.

The families will be lent a stove for 3 weeks, and asked to use it at least once every day. This should provide valuable information on the suitability of the stove to this area.

The School at Som Dach Euov, Pouk District was used to select those young people who were interested in their families testing the stove, and the project will then be explained to the main cook in the family who must agree. Criteria for selection were:
– current use of wood for fuel
– have garden / land which could be used for biochar deployment
– reside within Pouk or Siem Reap District
– interest in the project

Students who will be testing the new stove designs 16.07.2010

Monitoring fuel use using the KPT

Webinar: Monitoring fuel use using the kitchen performance test. 08.06.2010. The Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (http://www.pciaonline.org/)

This was an interesting discussion attended by Sarah. Two case studies in China and Ghana were presented, where the KPT was used as part of an improved stove project monitoring protocol.

In particular the following points were noted:
– In the China case study participants underestimated the amount of fuel they use.
– The KPT is an expensive and human resource expensive method (compared with WBT and CCT) – the sample selection process and data analysis is more involved than the other tests.
– For feasibility studies the participant is most likely not familiar with the stove, so this has to be taken into account when choosing tests to use.
– All the methods (WBT, CCT, KPT) can be used for multiple fuels / stove types and can include a traditional (baseline) stove in addition to the improved stoves.
– The Voluntary Gold Standard (for Carbon finance) requires that the KPT be used for monitoring and verification purposes. Some projects hire the Berkeley Air Monitoring Group to undertake this as an independent body.

ARTI field station in Phaltan, Maharastra, India. 25.05.2010.

Several stoves are produced by ARTI, a selection of clay types, a sawdust stove, and two gasification design amongst others. One of the gasification stoves includes the Sampanda which will be a focus of this project.

In addition Dr. Paul Anderson spend a bit of time at their field station and designed the Agni stove while there.

Paul Andedrson's design

Agni demonstration, August 2010

Several larger scale biochar making units have also been developed by ARTI, including a charring kiln which is used to produce biochar for field trials in Phaltan in the biocharm project.

Sampanda stove demonstration 22.05.10

The Sampanda stove was demonstrated by it’s developers in India; Samuchit Enviro Tech Pvt Ltd (distributers, designers and promotors of stove technologies including the Sampanda).

Sampanda demonstration, 22.05.2010, India

The Society of Biochar Initiatives – India

I met with Perses Bilamore who founded the Society of Biochar Initiatives in India (NGO) (http://www.biocharsoc.org/ and http://www.biochar-international.org/regional/india). One of the initiatives within the society was the production of some pyrolysis systems by PATPERT TEKNOW SYSTEMS (http://www.patpert.com/), and this unit was also visited at the ARTI field station in Phaltan.

Controlled testing of the Anila stove

Testing began on the Anila stove, more details can be found on bioenergylists: http://www.bioenergylists.org/content/testing-anila-stove

TLUD distribution 28.04.2010

Four of the TLUD were distributed to the cooks at the Pepyride School near Kralahn. Teachers from the school and some staff from Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT) were also there to observe. Mong from the Iron Workshop demonstrated their use and explained some of the benefits including fuel efficiency, smoke reduction and charcoal production. Useful feedback on first impressions was collected on the stove, and a discussion will be arranged to gather more information after they have tried out the stoves for 2-3 weeks. This information will help to shape the data collection methods which will be used on all the stoves for the project, and also for general information collection on preferences for technologies, feedstock availability and cooking cultures etc.

28.04.2010 Stove demonstration for Pepyride cooks

Controlled testing of EverythingNice

30.04.2010 EverythingNice stove testing

Tests were carried out on the EverythingNice stove. Notes are available at:
http://www.bioenergylists.org/content/testing-everythingni

Controlled testing of TLUD

The stove was tested according to water boiling test guidelines… more information on this to follow.

Two feedstocks were chosen to begin with, small sticks and chopped wood. The sticks were found around the site, and gathered quickly, and less than $0.05 worth of purchased wood was burned per test, which was firstly chopped into smaller pieces.

Details about the testing today, have been uploaded onto http://www.bioenergylists.org see:
http://www.bioenergylists.org/content/testing-andersons-tl

27.04.2010 wood pieces test of TLUD