Abstract
We report on the application in domestic stove
development of heterogeneous test methods that can
simultaneously quantify gaseous emissions, condensed
particulates and the mass of fuel burned in real time.
Such measurements can rapidly identify ideal
combustion conditions by post-facto dividing the test
into arbitrary segments for detailed analysis. Domestic
coal stoves typically operate daily across a wide range
of operating conditions. The analysis technique was
applied repeatedly throughout the development of a
lignite burning stove suitable for use in Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia, the coldest and most heavily air-polluted
capital city in the world. The outcome is a natural
draft chimney stove with a >99% reduction in PM 2.5
emissions and >90% reduction in CO, relative to the
baseline product. Including the ignition phase, the fire
emits less than 0.5 mg of PM2.5 per MegaJoule. This
challenges the popular notion that high-volatiles ‘low
quality’ coals are inherently smoky.