Wood gas stoves (or 'gasifiers') often amaze onlookers with their silent clean burn, and invariably generate interesting (and sometimes heated) discussions.
Wood-gas stoves create conditions where primary air partially combusts wood gas, with the resulting gases then mixed with heated air above the fuel where they burn very cleanly. Gasifier stoves can be used to produce biochar - a rebranding of the age-old concept of returning the charcoal produced through combustion to the soil as a conditioner - and carbon sink.
I recently came across an interesting new resource entitled 'Micro-gasification: Cooking with gas from biomass. An introduction to the concept and the applications of wood-gas burning technologies for cooking.
Wood gas stoves in labs often produce strikingly lower levels of carbon monoxide and particulates than rocket stoves (themselves much cleaner than three stone fires). They also produce lower levels of black carbon, thought to be a significant climate-warmer.
The report is written by the German international development agency GIZ, and is framed towards application in low-income countries. A number of wood gas stoves are available in the market, including some in India like the Champion and Orcha. These are slightly larger versions of the lightweight versions available here like the forced-air Wood Gas LE, and natural-draft Wild Woodgas Stove.
Whether these provide the answer to the demand for cleaner, more efficient stoves in low-income countries remains a question. But whatever the answer, it's always amazing to see a flickering gas flame hovering over a fuel-bed of hot wood.
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flydmuse.com is no longer live, but have linked to some other relevant posts.
This link is broken:
http://www.floydmuse.com/wils/woodgasstoves.html