Micro-gasification: Cooking with gas from biomass - Amper

Micro-gasification: Cooking with gas from dry biomass
‘Grassifier’ by Crispin Pemberton-Pigott (Canada)
It shows the viability of grass-pellets as a cooking fuel, which can be potentially an important
source of solid biomass energy especially in developing countries.
Can be made in 30 minutes with some more metal-working skills and simple tools: tin snips,
a sharp punch, a hammer, a fat washer for making ‗spouts‘ (not just holes) and a ruler or
tape measure. It helps to have a piece of steel pipe which is shown being used as an anvil
to fit the bottom plate.
General info and video on http://www.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/1518.
Construction descriptions http://www.bioenergylists.org/en/crispin_25-kw-grasifier
No downloadable plans (yet).
The design is based on the ‗Vesto‘-principle (see previous section) and it can burn grass
pellets but also a wide range of other solid fuels. The secondary air is preheated in a sleeve
between the double walls, all the way up to the top of the unit, well above the secondary air
entry holes.
The jets of well-preheated secondary air ‗shoot‘ into combustion chamber through small
holes and thoroughly mix with the wood-gas. The burner unit has no concentrator disk and
still burns cleanly. It manages to keep the flames rather low above the fuel bed.
The designer estimates, it would cost about $1.00 to produce from thin stainless steel.
HERA – GIZ Manual Micro-gasification Version 1.01 January 2011
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