Rocket Stove Cooker

[GrahamB]

Lately I have been reading a lot about bio char. I found a video on YouTube of a guy that had a rocket stove built into a propane can, but instead of filling the outer with ash or clay, he used it to make bio char. I'm thinking you could make a small cooker like the one guy has, but again fill it with wood chips or small sticks. As the stove heats up, the bio char process would start and the gasses from the wood would ignite and improve the power of the stove. It would help to improve conditions in several ways. The people would have a clean burning stove and they would have improvement for their soil, as well as sequestering all the greenhouse gasses.

[pa_friendly_guy]

The process that you discribe of making charcoal by heating the wood with a fire adjacent to it is the same process that was used to make coke here locally in Bee Hive Coke ovens for the Steel Mills. They would charge and burn every other oven. Then when the coal was burning and producing intense heat they would fill the coke ovens inbetween the burning ovens with coal. They did not start any fire in these newly fill ovens, the heat from either side would ignite them. When the 1st ovens had burned for the right number of hours water was used to put out the fires and the coke was pulled out by hand. When they were emptied the ovens were refilled with coal and the process was started again with the heat from the 2nd ovens igniting the newly charge 1st ovens. They never had to build any fires after the process was started, they just had to recharge the empty ovens with coal and the process was continuous. All of the smoke and chemicals from the coal being turned into coke was lost in the process using that type of Bee Hive ovens. Today they catch all of that smoke and use it to make plastics and other things. You certainly can make charcoal the way you discribe. If you can capture the smoke produced and redirect it back into the burn chamber it will ignite and burn. There is a video on the web I have seem where they do exactly that, burn Bio-Gas produced by the smke from a Rocket stove. The way they were catching the smoke made it so that you could not put a pot over the burner though. But the idea of producing Bio-Gas is sound. They used it to power automobiles as far back as WW ll . Look for Bio-Gas cars on the net, there are alot of pictures of cars and trucks using the Bio-Gas as their main fuel. They have limited range, maybe 10 to 15 miles and the power from the engine is reduced compaired with gasoline, but they do work, and they burn wood chips, a renewable resource. Redesigning my stove to be able to catch the smoke from the side chamber that you would fill with wood or wood chips would take some doing. It could be done but it would not be very easy. You would need a lid that was easy to remove so that the chamber could be filled easily, yet be air tight when closed so that the gas would be collected, and a flexible metal tube that would carry the Bio-Gas to the burn chamber. Much harder to fabricate than the simple basic design I made with tin snipes and few other basic tools. My stove is not really very high tech, but it does what it was designed to do very well for a cheap cost. That is the beauty of the design.

[GrahamB]

Yeah, the bio char retorts I was thinking of were the simple ones where they don't try to capture the syn gas, but burn it off in an upper chamber and chimney. And that is where my idea falls on its face as you would have to balance the cook pot on the top of the chimney. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I went to the Mother Earth News Fair at Seven Springs Resort this weekend. I was there both Sat & Sun because I had taken my electric car for them to display. Our local electric car club had a booth and we had 2 electric cars, an electric bike and an electric tractor on display. There were alot of great speakers on many different topics, I got to attend only a few. There were venders with some great products there from greenhouses, saw mills, composting toilets, pots and pans, kitchen tools, plants, soap and cleaning supplies, top bar bee hives, books on many different topics, grain mills, vacation homes in Balize, different hand tools and tillers, you name it, some great stuff. One vender had a manufactured Rocket Stove for sale. The can was a bit smaller than mine, it had a rack that stuck out from the fire so that you could use longer sticks. It also had a wind screen around the top so that all of the heat would get to your pot. Other than that is was the same design that I made at home for $10.05. It was on sale at the Fair for $95 but the one they had there was their display modle, and it too was sold, but they would sell me one and give me free shipping if I wanted one. I did not have the heart to tell them that I had one that I had made myself, I was pleased to see them selling manufactured Rocket Stoves. I am not sure but I think there is a deal that if we buy one here for that high price they give one to someone in the Third World. Not 100% positive about that, but I think that is the case. If that is the deal I would feel alot better about paying their price. But then again I could still build my own and donate the bal. to them and buy 9 stoves for people in the Third World, .

[pa_friendly_guy]

Here is a picture of the stove they are selling. A bit fancier than mine, but it operates the same.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images ... ting-goods

I like the longer rack so that longer sticks can be burned, as well as the handles. I cut the one metal handle from the top of the can and pop rivited it to the side of the stove, which helps to lift it and carry it around, but 2 handles would be nice.

[adi052]

pa_friendly_guyn how much price this?

[pa_friendly_guy]

They were selling the manufactured one for $95. It had 2 sturdy handles and a metal wire rack in the front to hold up the sticks you are burning. It seemed to be pretty well made. The pictures of the one I made for $10.05 are at the front of this thread as well as the how to videos. I simply watched the 2 videos and followed their instructions, it was pretty easy and took less than 1/2 a day to complete the unit. I feel that mine will burn as well, and heat a pot as well as theirs, theirs might be easier to transport, it has a few nice extra features that mine does not and it does look a little nicer. You pays your money you takes your choice, .

[dave brenneman]

[pa_friendly_guy]

I came across this video of a guy cooking on the Store Bought Rocket Stove cooker. It gives you a pretty good idea about the amount of wood that it takes to actually cook something. I think it is a surprisingly small amount of wood. He shows it cooking a variety of things and he also BBQ's hot dogs on his stove. This video gives a better idea of the operation of the stove. My still pictures can't show the actual operation as well as a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUwr3wSMgPw

Here is another video of the same guy showing how to light his Rocket Stove Cooker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiOFWXJFa-A

[pdk17]

I just ran into this one. It is not advertised as a 'rocket stove system' but when I hear of a device that boils water in no time with just a handful of kindling, I am sure it's sort of a rocket stove. And it is! Plus it charges USB devices. Kinda cool but in my quest to live more low-tech, this thing wouldn't help me